Doctor Frances Tunnell Carter was born in May 1922 in Springville, Mississippi. Her father was an insurance man during the Great Depression, but eventually went into farming because no one was buying insurance. Carter remembers that food was pretty scarce, and there was not much cash flow. She remembered everything was rationed from food to gas to tires. Her father did own a truck for farming. Carter rode a bus to school. She attended Springville School [Annotator's Note: Springville Elementary School, Springville, Alabama] up until the 8th grade. Then attended Pontiac High School right outside of Springville, Alabama. After she graduated from high school, she went to Wood Junior College in Mathiston, Mississippi on a work scholarship. During her sophomore year, she remembers learning about the attack on Pearl Harbor. She sat in the living room area of the dorm, which had a large radio. She listened to Franklin D. Roosevelt deliver his speech. Although just friends at the time, her future husband, John Carter, volunteered for military service. Carter was eager to help with the war efforts as well. She taught kindergarten through 2nd grade students in one room for a year. When the school session ended she decided to move to Birmingham, Alabama to work at Bechtel-McCone-Parsons Aircraft Modification Center in the sheet metal department. She and John got engaged through V-mail. After the war, she continued her education at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then received her masters at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, and finally her doctorate in 1951 at the University of Illinois in Champagne, Illinois.

After Frances Tunnell Carter taught one session as a schoolteacher from 1942 to 1943, she moved to Birmingham, Alabama to work in the sheet metal department of the Bechtel-McCone-Parsons Aircraft Modification Center. The Center was located on the backside of the Birmingham International Airport. She received 12 weeks of training which were taught by men with specialized training in the field. When she worked there, the Center was receiving B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] bomber airplanes. The overall goal for the Center was to modify the airplanes to make sure they were ready for duty. Working in couples, the women would put two metal sheets together and rivet them in place. One woman would drill a hole in the two pieces of aluminum and drive the rivet into the hole, then the other woman on the inside of the plane would use a metal-brick-like tool called a bucking ball to make a connection with the rivet. Carter and her coworkers would work on a three hour shift. The Center offered no food, so workers had to bring their own lunch. There was also no air conditioning in the Center. For safety reasons, all the workers were required to wear a handkerchief or something to cover their hair, and wear overalls or blue jeans. Security was tight too.

Frances Tunnell Carter does not recall any major injury incidents at the Bechtel-McCone-Parsons Aircraft Modification Center in Birmingham, Alabama but she did get aluminum dust in her eye. Her supervisor told her to visit a doctor immediately. At 22 years old that was her first visit to a doctor. The Center paid her 30 cents per hour, which was better than other jobs. They wanted to send her to Florida, but her mother was ill and did not want Carter being so far away, so she asked to be released instead. Carter remembers a few minorities working at the Center. There were a few black and Native American women. She also recalls that blind people also worked in the factories because they could test the friction of the rivet. There were also mothers and daughters working together as well. She does not remember any racial tension, but she remembers the tension of making sure to do the job right. Carter had no idea that her generation of women were making a difference for future women. She just wanted to do the work so the boys could come home, and they could get married and have children. But looking back, she considers herself a trailblazer.

Frances Tunnell Carter would hear about the progress of the war on her aunt and uncle's radio. She remembers a radio announcement declaring the war was over, only moments later they retracted it. Not too long after, she heard again the war had finally ended. She was cautiously glad because she was concerned that it wasn't over until the boys started coming home. Carter married her fiancé, John Carter, after the war. Working at the Bechtel-McCone-Parsons Aircraft Modification Center in Birmingham, Alabama gave her confidence of doing something she had never had done before. It also gave her a cause greater than she had known, to win the war. She believes that World War 2 opened the door for women in various ways, and changed the world with new inventions, new advancements, and new modes of transportation. For her, World War 2 was something Americans needed to do. War gave the country good and bad memories. Carter believes that The National WWII Museum will preserve the history and events that happened to us.

In 1998, Doctor Frances Tunnell Carter formed the American Rosie Riveter Association. She created this association to honor the working women and women volunteers of the Home Front. The first chapter was formed in Birmingham, Alabama, and over the years, the Association has added chapters across the country. "Rosie" Members include women who were employed in an industry that helped with the war effort. Women who are descendants of a "Rosie" could also join as a "Rosebud." Men who are related to a "Rosie" may also join as a "Rivet."