May 30th, 2021
Bobbie Lamb
URGENT RELEASE: MAY 29, 2021 MEMORIAL DAY STORY
LEADING ROSIE THE RIVETER AIR-LIFTED TO DIE IN HER OWN HOME
Charleston, WV. Verla (“Bobbie”) Lamb passed away just before Memorial Day, after holding on to her life until she was air-lifted from a hospital in North Carolina to her home in Elkins, West Virginia. Her son, Arnol Lamb, assured her that she was home as he kissed her forehead. She heard him even though she could not open her eyes or speak. She died with other near, while he was buying her medications.
The full story her family’s herculean efforts to assure that she felt comforted and loved as she died is profoundly important. Yet, as important as this is, there is more to her story.
This humble, intelligent, caring woman has become important in the founding of a new kind of social movement called, The American Rosie Movement™, that creates public-driven projects that tell the fuller story of meaning Rosie the Riveters.
“Bobbie” left her rural home in Elkins, West Viginia to work at the Glen L. Martin plant in Baltimore, where she riveted and cut sheet-metal for B26 and B29 airplanes, while her sister worked for the FBI and her bothers and husband were at war.
In 2013, she was interviewed by “Thanks! Plain and Simple Inc.™ (“Thanks”), a nonprofit organization that finds, gets to know, and work with Rosie the Riveters and the public to creates ways for “the people” to assure that the Rosie Legacy™ becomes part of America’s identity.
In 2014, dogwood trees were planted in four states to honor Rosies, it was raining so hard at Buckhannon-Upshur High School that Bobbie could not go outside for the planting. Bill Bonnett, a retired US Navy Captain and friend of “Thanks!” handed a Girl Scout Brownie a large handbell to ring so Bobbie would know when the tree was dropped in the ground. By 2016 bells were being rung annually for Rosies across America and in other nations to honor Rosies.
This year, on Sept. 3, 2021, six cities that have worked at least five years to advance the Rosie Legacy™ will be featured when bells ring across America and other nations to say, “Wake up! Unite and do something to preserve freedom and use it wisely! Rosies proved we can do it together. With you, we are pulling together again!”
Contact: Anne Montague, Executive Director and Founder of “Thanks!” for details, photos, audio or Arnol Lamb
This audio message from Bobbie’s son, Arnol Lamb, is not only touching but important in setting the tone for the American Rosie Movment™.
