Former ‘Rosie the Riveter’ turns grief into art
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WARREN -- When Esther Castellano lost her husband of 66 years in 2010, her daughter hooked her up with an art therapist from the Warren City School District to help her deal with her grief.
Now, 12 years later, Castellano still is creating works of art that she shares with the community on Facebook and through a "prodcast" directed by her grandson, Jim Fogarty of 2 Ticks & The Dog Productions Inc.
"My mom was always creative and loved art even as a child, but her family couldn't afford to send her to art school," Philomena Lucariello, Castellano's middle daughter, also of Warren, said.
Castellano, who will turn 100 on Oct. 18, was born Esther Rita Pagano on Oct. 18, 1922, in Warren. Her parents were from Foggia, Italy, and she had one sister and two brothers, who all are deceased. She met her husband, Jerry, who was from Brooklyn, while he was serving in the military, and he moved to Ohio after the couple met and worked at Mullins Manufacturing.
Castellano was working at Woolworth Department Store at the age of 20 in 1944 when she answered the call to become a Rosie the Riveter during World War II while both of her brothers were serving in the military. She applied and landed a job at Packard Electric.
Her father had worked at a steel mill and warned her it would be hard work.
When he asked Castellano if she could handle it, she said she replied: "I don't know. Whatever they put at me, that's what I will do and I will do the best I can."
She immediately was put to work as a welder. She once caught her hair on fire during training and started to question her choice, but she stuck to it and ended up loving it, she said. She welded on the B29 airplane line and then moved to terminals, where she had to place seven wires in a very precise order.
"They were not color coded," she said during her interview for a Rosie the Riveter program at Kent State University at Trumbull in 2019, which was a Pearl Harbor event co-sponsored by the Tribune Chronicle.
Her steady art hand was well suited for welding, and she later worked on the gun mounts and welded the frames of landing barges. It was hot and the equipment was heavy, but she adjusted and it ended up being just another form of art for her, she said.
She worked at Packard for about three years and said she quit because her boss wouldn't give her time off to see Jerry, who was on furlough.
She and Jerry got married at St. Mary Church in Warren, after which she became a homemaker, raising four children: Teresa Massucci, now 75; Philomena, 72; Frank, who died in 2020 at the age of 67; and Jeri Lyn Germano, 60. She also has five grandchildren, Angela Menz, Marla Chain, Jim Fogarty, Jenna Byler and Jacqueline Cykon; as well as seven great-grandchildren, Daniel, Dylan and Drew Chain, Olivia Menz, Jimi Fogarty, and Zoe and Jade Byler.
She and Jerry later joined St. James Catholic Church on Burton Street when they moved to that side of town in 1960.
"I loved drawing and painting when I was younger. I kept doing it and the more I did it, the better I got," Castellano said. "I mostly draw people and animals, but whatever is in front of me, I try to replicate it on paper."
After Jerry died, she started making special occasion cards for family and friends, with many of them featuring one of her favorite subjects -- Betty Boop.
"I use sketching to ease my grief and console others," she said.
As a child, she also learned to play piano by ear.
"I didn't need lessons," Castellano said. "I just played for fun."
She lived by herself until she fell two years ago and then moved in with her oldest daughter. And Lucariello said Castellano prepared weekly Sunday Italian dinners for more than 20 people until she fell and had to slow down.
She had a heart attack while weeding her garden at the age of 88 and underwent open heart surgery. In 2015, she was the flower girl at her granddaughter's wedding at the age of 93. Her husband was the best man at their grandson's wedding when he was 92. That was about a month before he died.
Her son Frank died in January 2020 of a blood disorder, and she again turned to art to help her through the grieving process. Lucariello said the pandemic was hard on her mom because she couldn't interact with people.
"When she has nothing to do, she starts missing my dad and my brother, so she prefers to keep busy," Lucariello said.
"I love being around people. I like music and I love art," Castellano said.
And her secret for living to the age of 99?
"I had a good husband, a good life and a good family. I have been truly blessed."