Colorado Springs woman known as ‘Wanda the Riveter’ celebrates 100th birthday
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - This week, Wanda Daniels, aka "Wanda the Riveter" celebrated her centennial birthday.
Wanda still drives, works in her garden, and plays word games to keep her mind sharp. She lives alone in Colorado Springs in a house that she has lived in for sixty years. Twenty-five of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren live nearby. She has four sons, Robert, Raymond, Ronald, and Brian. Three of them live in Colorado Springs.
Daniels was born in 1923 and grew up on a farm in Nebraska, where she helped her family until she turned sixteen. Then, her family moved to California where she later met her husband. She worked for the military during World War II on the assembly line. Her family jokes that while she was assembling planes, her husband was destroying them overseas. This is when she earned the nickname "Wanda the Riveter."
When asked for advice for the next generation, she simply reminded people to forgive and forget.
"Just keep happy. Keep smiling," Daniels said. "You know, you're going to have ups and downs. Forget them, move on. And I think that in itself, really don't hold a grudge. I made it at the time. It hurts. But then you get over it and forget it. "
