When Roslyn Glassman’s children saw pictures of the fictional “Rosie the Riveter,” they said, “there’s Mom.”
In fact, Glassman was a riveter and did wear overalls and a bandana like Rosie, a symbol of World War II women in defense jobs.
Glassman, who was a lifelong artist, died April 18 at her Morrison home. She was 88. Service arrangements are pending.
Glassman had to wear the work clothes and the bandana — the latter so her hair wouldn’t get stuck in a machine — while working for Grumman Aircraft (now Northrop Grumman), which made fighter planes, said Glassman’s son, Verne Glassman of Aurora.
“The girls started work at Grummans plant on Long Island before sunrise and worked until after dark, six days a week,” Verne Glassman said.
She illustrated manuals used in the Manhattan Project (the government’s code name for a project that developed the atom bomb) but Glassman and the other workers didn’t know it at the time, said her daughter, Barbara Wilson.
After the war, Glassman got back to art, such as using paint and fabric to make pictures of life-sized dancers all over the world. The work covered the basement walls.
She and her son, also an artist, worked on illustrations for his coral reef project together, partially because they got snowed in for several days while he was living in Aurora.
“We learned a lot from each other,” said her son.
She also illustrated his book on “Preparation for Surgery,” and decorated the outside of her house for her children’s birthday parties.
“She always stayed young; she was never old,” said a longtime friend, Elizabeth Watson of Aurora. “People just loved to be around her.”
Roslyn Bimstein was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 12, 1921, and graduated from high school in the Bronx.
She had a full scholarship to Cooper Union College in New York City where she studied fashion design.
She married Alex Glassman, an electrical engineer, in October 1945, and they moved to Denver in 1956 when he was transferred here by his company. He died in 2002.
In addition to her son and daughter, she is survived by another son, Corey Glassman of Whidbey Island, Wash.; her companion, Gerald Nichols; her brother, Mervin Bimstein of Ocean View, Calif.; and two grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
