A remembrance ceremony for Doris Bier, Lewis County’s last Rosie the Riveter, was held at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis on Saturday, March 1.
Bier, 97, died Feb. 14. She was born on Dec. 30, 1927, in Centralia to Lloyd D. and Melinda Belle (Niles) Hastings and grew up in Adna with her older siblings, Helen, Donald and Robert, according to her obituary published in The Chronicle.
“When the war effort needed workers, she answered the call,” her obituary states. “The high school sophomore graduated from Mechanic School at Cloverdale in Lakewood, wrapped a bandana around her hair, and excelled at her job at the Mount Rainier Ordnance Depot. A coworker who knew her father told her to go home and play with dolls. Instead, she won an E pin, a red carnation and a toolbox on wheels for her excellent work putting together Diamond T truck axles. Her stories about working on the home front during World War II are captured within the pages of ‘Life on the Home Front: Stories of those who worked, waited, and worried during WWII.’ After graduating from Adna in 1947, Doris married Clayton Bier, from Rochester, on June 13, 1947, with Janie and Irene Sato as flower girls. When his pastor and her pastor refused to marry them because of the Japanese ancestry of the flower girls, they simply moved the wedding to the Centralia Presbyterian Church. She and Clayton raised five children — Nancy, Linda, Wayne, Robert and Peggy. Doris took care of the home and family while Clayton worked. She loved collecting dolls, which she did for many years. After their children were raised, Doris and Clayton enjoyed traveling.”
