Delphine Tedeski Klaput

Meet Delphine Virginia Tedeski Klaput, who was born November 23, 1924 in the small coal mining town of Cadogan, Pennsylvania to Angelo and Genevieve Dantella-Tedeski. She was the oldest of 3 children. Delphine’s father served during World War One. During his service, he was exposed to mustard gas to save his regiment and suffered from that exposure until his death.

Delphine met her future husband George Benedick Klaput during her high school years. George and his twin brother Joseph joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. While George was flying missions as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17 over Europe, Delphine’s uncle secured her a position to work as a classified documents clerk at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company near Baltimore, Maryland. She dropped out of high school, went to live with her uncle in Baltimore, and with his guidance started work. Her daily duties consisted of keeping track of plans and small parts for the aircraft and distributing them to the appropriate people in the plant. Some of the plans she ferried around were classified as top secret.

When George returned from Europe in 1944, after completing all his missions over Europe (including missions over France during D-Day) he and Delphine were married. The war was still on, so George was then assigned to Lowery Air Force Base. George left for Denver and Delphine returned to work at Glenn L. Martin until George sent for her. Once she arrived in Denver, Delphine secured a job working at Western Union. Her duties included transcribing and routing messages, some of which were notifications to families of soldiers killed in the line of duty. One message she enjoyed helping to send was a message from a soldier to his sweetheart at home that said, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” Once George’s training was complete, they were sent to Greenville, Mississippi to await new orders. While in Greenville, WWII ended. They moved back to Cadogan and began raising a family.

In 1952, George and Delphine moved to Royal Oak, Michigan as George was offered a job as a mill wright at Martini Tool & Die Manufacturing. Together, they raised 5 children. Delphine was a stay-at-home mom while their children were growing up and would sew clothes and crochet in her spare time. When her children were older, she took a job at the local clothes cleaner doing alterations. She also started volunteering at the nearby Senior Center. In her mid-70s Delphine went to work at Costco doing demonstrations for 16 years.

George and Delphine had been married 72 years at the time of his death in 2016. After his passing, Delphine’s son-in-law was attending an Optimist meeting where Claire Dahl, a speaker and historian, talked about Rosie the Riveter in history. After the meeting, Jerry spoke to Claire about Delphine working during War II and she confirmed that Delphine was indeed considered a real Rosie the Riveter. Delphine was surprised and very excited to receive this news.

On April 10, 2024, Delphine along with a delegation of 27 original Rosies, went to Washington DC where Speaker of the House Mike Johnson presented them with a Congressional Gold Medal honoring all Rosie the Riveters for their service during WWII