She can do it! And, she can sign it for you!
Clark College student Adeena Wade was a finalist in last year’s Rose Festival “Search for Queen Thelma” contest, which would have seen her portraying first-ever Rose Festival Queen Thelma Hollingsworth — if she’d won.
Wade, now 20, had a gut feeling she wouldn’t snag that century-retrospective honor. But she must have impressed festival judges with her strong, sure spirit — because she was invited to come back this year as the festival’s own living version of strong, sure Rosie the Riveter, the archetypal shipbuilding woman who pitched in on the home front to help win World War II. It’s part of the Rose Festival’s Living History program, which brings local history alive for children in local schools.
“Rosie the Riveter was an icon,” Adeena said. “There wasn’t one Rosie the Riveter, she was all these women who came to work in the shipyards as the men went to war.”
“Rose Wade” is the name of Adeena Wade’s take on the universal Rosie. The character was developed by Rose Festival officials, but as the name implies, “they built this character off of me,” Adeena said. She contributed her own details to the biography, too.
Here’s the Rose Wade story. She grew up in Battle Ground, graduated from high school in 1943 and decided to move with her friend Suzy and Suzy’s two children to Vanport City to work in the Kaiser shipyards. She was inspired by the popular “Rosie the Riveter” song that was then on the radio, and by the famous poster we all know.
“She was inspired,” Adeena said. “She said to her mom, ‘I want to be one of those strong women who help win the war.’ “
By her early 20s, Rose Wade had not only helped win the war but also lived through the disastrous 1948 Vanport flood. She and Suzy — whose husband never returned from the war — and the kids were out picnicking when that happened, Adeena said. But they stayed in Vanport despite the disaster — because it was affordable.
Rose Wade probably became a schoolteacher after that, but Adeena’s not quite sure. In fact she’s hoping to do a huge research project on women, the war effort and Vanport — so maybe she’ll figure it out.
Playing the Rose Wade character for third-graders in Portland area schools over the past couple of months has been a revelation, Adeena said. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said. “It’s been magical.” Part of the magic has been the eager kids who swarm around her with questions and excitement, she said.
You can swarm around her, too, and get Rose Wade’s autograph on a “We Can Do It!” poster, at a handful of upcoming Rose Festival celebrity appearances (where she’ll be joined by “Thelma Hollingsworth” and Portland Mayor “Harry Lane,” known as father of the Rose Festival). Those are set for 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and 2 to 4 p.m. May 30 and June 7 at the Rose Festival’s CityFair, which is at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on the west side of downtown Portland. Admission is $7 for people 7 years old and older, or $5 in advance. Visit www.rosefestival.org/event/cityfair-tickets-online to learn more about tickets.
Rose Wade will also ride on the Rose Festival Foundation Float in the Grand Floral Parade on June 6.
— Scott Hewitt
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