Rosa Mae Willis Alford
February 1, 1912 – January 20, 2011
Female Mechanic for Tuskegee Airmen Became Educator
It’s not known exactly how many women were among the estimated 15,000-16,000 support personnel who worked with the approximately 1,000 young aviators.
Rosa Mae Willis Alford was born in 1912 in Clarksdale, Mississippi to Carrie and Hezekiah Willis. A bright student, she was encouraged and supported by her parents to pursue a goal in higher education. When she ventured out to college to Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington was its president and George Washington Carver, the great scientist and inventor, was a professor. She graduated in 1947 from Tuskegee University with a degree in Home Economics.
To earn money for tuition, Rosa worked as a skilled technician repairing the training planes used by the Tuskegee Airmen cadets. These African-American men exhibited their bravery while flying as a unit in World War II.
After graduating, she found a teaching position in Easton, Maryland. It was here she met her future husband, William J. Alford from New Brighton and the couple settled in his hometown.
Rosa’s first job in New Brighton was with The Lighthouse for the Blind. In mid-1950 she was hired by the New Brighton School Board as the first African-American teacher. She taught in the Home Economics Department and taught in schools in Alabama and Maryland, where she met her husband, William J. Alford, a chemist who later worked in the steel industry.
Reaching another goal, she received a Master’s Guidance Counseling Degree from Michigan State University in 1960. With this degree, she began her position as Guidance Counselor at the Beaver Falls High School. She held that position until her retirement. During her career, she also taught at The Christian School in Beaver Falls.
Rosa was honored by the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial organization as the only woman on the marker at the Sewickley Cemetery, where the memorial is the only one of its kind in America. Mr. Regis Bobonis, the founder of TAM, spent his life teaching the history of these famed young men, of which 100 were from Western Pennsylvania. Because of their skill and prowess, the United States Air Force was able to win the air war in World War II.
In 2020, the engineering students of Carnegie University created cleaning robots for the Pittsburgh International Airport. The staff decided to name the robots after persons who were aviators, so one was named Amelia Earhart and one, Orville Wright. The third robot was named for Rosa because she was a regional Tuskegee Airman repairwoman and the staff wanted to recognize a person of color. The airport has an exhibit that honors the Tuskegee Airmen and Rosa is also included in that space.
Rosa was a life-long member of the National NAACP, The Schomburg Society for the Preservation of Black Culture, New York and the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, and has received numerous honorary awards for her service throughout the years. She traveled extensively to Africa, Israel, Europe, China and throughout the United States, and frequently attended Chautauqua Institute, New York, to participate in their lecture and concert series. In 2011, at the age of 98, Rosa Mae Willis Alford made her transition and left behind a legacy of love, spirituality, education and service to the African American and larger community of Beaver County Pennsylvania.
Sources:
Blue Sky News
Tuskegee Airmen of Western Pennsylvania
New Brighton Historical Society
