Former ​“Rosie the Riveter” Celebrates 100

Edie Fishman celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by bubbles, bright balloons, and flowers in Wooster Square Park.

Comrades, community leaders, neighbors, and friends poured into the park Saturday afternoon to wish her a happy centennial birthday and thank her for her years of work.

Fishman turned 100 on Thursday. The celebration took place Saturday.

When many factory and war production jobs sat vacant as men were called to serve in World War II, Fishman was one of the real-life women — or ​“Rosie the Riveters” — who stepped in to aid the war effort from home.

She worked as a machinist helper in the New York Shipyard and a solderer for the Radio Corporation of America in New Jersey. Later on she worked as a high school art teacher.

Fishman first joined the Young Communist League (YCL) in Philadelphia when she was 14 and has remained a member of the Communist Party throughout her life.

“I’m proud to be like her,” said her daughter Joelle Fishman, who chairs the Connecticut Communist Party USA and organized the party for her mother Saturday.

“She never stopped for a minute, and she said she has loved her life and she’d do it again.”

Joelle Fishman sat with her mother as visitors lined up under the tent to greet her. ​“She’s been active in the community and this is a community celebration!” she said.

Edie Fishman wore a blue ao dai Joelle brought back for her from Vietnam 11 years ago. Fishman last wore the outfit on her 90th birthday.

Joelle Fishman said the crowd out celebrating her mother’s birthday ​“represents Edie’s love of community and her commitment to a better world.”

Attendees sang along to music and passed around songbooks with Fishman’s favorite tunes of ​“joy and struggle.”

Win Heimer lives in West Hartford and got to know Fishman through work with the Connecticut Communist Party.

“She had been there for the struggle, and she’s still with us in the struggle. It’s important to look up to someone like that as a source for inspiration” he said.

Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo and Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton helped Joelle Fishman throw Saturday’s birthday bash. 

“She’s one of the kindest women I’ve ever met,” said Cupo. She met Edie Fishman through Fishman’s work with the labor-affiliated New Haven Rising activist group. She said Fishman was supportive of her run for alder.

Cupo came to the party with her husband Ian and son Hunter, who happily held onto a shiny birthday balloon.

“She really does live and breathe social justice, anti-racism, and workers’ rights. She’s been committed to it her entire life,” Cupo said.

Hamilton handed out watermelon slices Saturday afternoon. She said this was her first time going to a 100th birthday party ‚“and I hope it’s not my last!” Joelle Fishman is one of Hamilton’s constituents in Ward 24. She said that she and Edie Fishman have been ​“very loyal supporters.”

Edie has volunteered for her ​“sitting there with me through every election” each time she has run for office since 2011, Hamilton said. 

“She’s a remarkable woman. They don’t come any greater than Edie Fishman. How many people can you say have lived to be a hundred years young and still be out here, walking, talking, and doing everything.”

Cindy Harrity, an organizer for the Communications Workers of America from East Hartford, said she has known Edie Fishman for a long time.

She recalled driving up to collect signatures on a petition from campers at a progressive Jewish summer camp called Kinderland in Western Massachusetts where Fishman was once a counselor. Harrity also gathered pictures of the camp from the 1960s to include on a birthday poster with the signatures.

“Who else has been more supportive of the worker movement and of people’s rights? It’s pretty amazing” Harrity said.

Harrity’s 15-year-old grandson, Boston Thomas, helped her collect the signatures for the poster. ​“It’s great to celebrate the 100th birthday of someone who has done so much,” said Thomas.

Cornelius Redfearn said he met Edie Fishman through Joelle in Newhallville activism work: ​“She has been a part of history for this city and the community as a unionizer and an activist so she’s a special person. I’m just honored to be a part of her life.”

Redfearn brought his two granddaughters to celebrate Fishman’s birthday. He said he wanted to share her work and life story with them because sometimes ​“young people are naive about what’s going on.”

Sara Ohly used to take walks around Wooster Square Park with Edie Fishman. ​“We would talk and talk and talk.”

Ohly met Fishman five years ago through Home Haven, which aims to help seniors preserve their independence through social connection and community. At the time, Ohly said, Fishman was also taking courses at Gateway Community College.

She said she admires Fishman’s ​“endless, boundless curiosity, her engagement, will to live and her story.”

Georgina Fuentes has known Fishman since she was a little girl. She said that her mom was in the Communist Party and that she joined the YCL when she was young.

Fuentes said that Fishman remembers ​“the good, the bad, and the ugly” of their work through the years. She said she traveled with Fishman to campaign and march in Chicago and Washington D.C.

“She’s such an inspirational woman, and to have such age to still remember all the campaigning, all the marches, all the fight that she had inside her for the good of the world she is very special. To be able to remember all of that is awesome,” Fuentes said.

Fuentes said she considers Fishman to be almost like her grandmother. ​“She’s always been in my life and very loving, warm, and very intelligent.”

She said the most important lesson she has learned from Fishman is ​“to always fight for what’s right.”