Loraine Osborne was born in Prestonsburg, Kentucky in 1925. She grew up on a farm. They canned everything. When they butchered animals, they had to put them in the smokehouse. There were eight children in the family. They only bought salt, sugar, and flour. They raised their own cane. She went to work for Ford Motor Company for 32 years. She raised her family by herself because her husband passed away. One of her sons was in the Army. She kept people in her house. When she worked at a paper mill, she sent money home to her mother to put electricity in the house. Osborne was the fifth child. They all worked. She works all the time. When she heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] she was in school. She took a train up to Detroit [Annotator’s Note: Detroit, Michigan]. She was working at a bomber plant. When they bought a house with five acres, they only paid five thousand dollars. She went to Michigan to get a job during the war. She had three brothers in the service. They served with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. She had two nephews who served in the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975].

Loraine Osborne was 16 years old when she moved. [Annotator’s Note: Osborne moved to Detroit, Michigan]. She worked at home. She sold greens. It was hard times and they could hardly get any sugar. She walked in the rain to the bomber plant and they hired her. She walked to work until the bus started running. Every Saturday night, they would have square dancing. She had a little bit of training at the bomber plant. She would put the rivets in. She got aluminum in her eye one day and they had to put a patch on her eye. She had to sell war bonds [Annotator's Note: debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditures in times of war] after she hurt her eye. After her eye healed, she went back to riveting. She had five brothers. They all worked together. She was used to working with men. They canned their food. They had to walk two miles to school. She put out production for Ford Motor Company. She got thanks for the work she did in the factory. When she got to work, she had to check her tools out. Then she had to go to her job and get started. The foreman was a big guy. At lunchtime, they had a lunch wagon. They got two 15-minute breaks. When they finished, they had to check their tools back in. A plane went out once an hour. They had to get those planes out. She had to catch the bus or it was gone. She was a riveter on the right and center wings of the B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. She was making more money than she ever had. She was always saving her money.

Loraine Osborne knew that they had to get the planes out so they could be shipped overseas. The harder they worked, the more boys they could bring back. She kept up with the war news. She got on a train to go find work [Annotator’s Note: in Detroit, Michigan]. The war ended while she was working at the bomber plant. Her husband was still working. They were glad the war was over. She knew some young men who were killed. Some young men did not get over the war. Her husband could not go into the service because he had a broken arm. He went to work in the bomber plant and that is how they met. There were a lot of people working in the plant. They could drive by the highway to see the finished planes. She recently got to fly in a plane.

Loraine Osborne joined the war effort because a lot of her friends were going into the war. Her sister went to work in the bomber plant and she went with her. [Annotator’s Note: Osborne worked at a bomber plant in Detroit, Michigan]. She learned how to get along with people. She is thankful she was able to help in the war. Osborne always helped the other Rosies [Annotator's Note: nickname used to identify any female working in a physical role in the defense industry during World War 2]. She got along with all people. She had colored friends [Annotator's Note: an ethnic descriptor historically used for Black people in the United States]. Women did their job to get the war over. The quicker the war ended, the quicker the soldiers would come back.