GARLAND, Texas — A North Texas city is taking the summer to spread a story of inspiration, the story of the women who stepped up as machinists during World War II, and they’re getting some help from one woman that was there.

The city of Garland this week — a community just northeast of Dallas — opened the "Manufacturing Victory" exhibit in the lower level of their city hall. Leaders say the exhibit is a traveling exhibition from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

"Manufacturing Victory" tells the story of the homefront effort during WWII. As many of America’s men were overseas fighting, there was a massive state-wide push for anyone left to quickly become skilled in manufacturing so they could help create machinery needed in the war effort. That work fell heavily to minority populations, disabled workers, and to, likely, the largest group involved: women.

Grace Brown, a young woman at the time from Austin, was one of those women who stepped up to the call. Brown said she moved to Waco to go to school and become a machinist before relocating to Fort Worth to work at Consolidated Aircraft.

“I think I started in ’42,” said Brown. “I made parts, engine parts for the big bombers.”

Brown stopped by the exhibit in Garland, which she said brought back a lot of memories from those days. She recalled living in dormitories with her fellow workers as they built the parts that would go overseas to assist America’s troops.

Brown said it was a lot of work, and when she first left home to do it, she didn’t really tell any of her friends where she was going what she was going to do. She just wanted to get to the job at hand.

“I think I did make muscles,” said Brown with a laugh, flexing her biceps.

The woman machinists from that era became popularized in history via the Norman Rockwell painting of Rosie the Riveter. Brown pointed out that she never picked up the rivet gun herself, but said that there were obviously a lot of manufacturing jobs that needed to be done for the cause.

Now at just over 100 years old, Brown is one of "Rosies" left in Texas and in the country. Kim Nurmi, who coordinates the historic museum efforts for Garland, said that makes it all the more important to collect those stories now and to bring them back in the conversation for the next generation — while there are still first-hand sources to recount the events.

Nurmi added that in a time when the country is divided on a lot of fronts, the story of the "Rosies" is one that we could all probably learn from.

“The story of: if we all come together and if we give everybody an opportunity, then we can accomplish anything,” said Nurmi.

The whole thing is still something that Brown is unpacking today as well. After leaving her position building for the war, she went on to have a long career in banking — which she says also wasn’t particularly common for women at the time — and she saw the country and world grow into what it is today. 

Brown said it’s only as she’s told the story in recent years that she’s started to fully understand the bigger picture of what she and the other "Rosies" did, beyond helping their country.

“I didn’t realize I had made a mark for women like that, but I just now am beginning to realize I did,” said Brown with a laugh.

She said she plans to keep sharing that story as long as she can.

"Manufacturing Victory" is on display at Garland City Hall through August 15.