When your mom was ‘Rosie the Riveter’, a strong work ethic should come as no surprise.

In many ways, Vickie Croston’s story began before she was born, with the experiences of the strong woman who would one day become her mother. Years into the future, her mom would inspire Vickie to become a pilot, a skydiver, a dental professional, and a home builder. She would pass her incredible work ethic to her daughter, teaching her to work hard and never give up.

Rosie the Riveter

Rose Monroe was in her early 20s when an automobile accident claimed the life of her husband, leaving her with two young children. She needed to support her family, but there were few well-paying jobs near her home in south central Kentucky. Furthermore, she had only an eighth-grade education. “She didn’t have the opportunity to go to school,” Vickie says. “She made a good, successful life through grit and hard work.” One day Rose saw a poor family at a bus station. The children’s shoes were so worn out, the tops and soles were held together with canning jar rings. “Mom said, ‘I will never let that happen. I will work three jobs, if I have to, to provide for my kids.’”

During the early part of America’s involvement in World War II, Rose heard there were good jobs available in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She soon got a job making B-24 bombers at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory. Rose worked as a riveter on an innovative assembly line that Henry Ford’s son Edsel designed to manufacture aircraft (after World War II, it became an automobile factory). During the week, Rose lived in the Quonset hut barracks at the Willow Run Airport; her two children were in the care of a co-worker’s family.

One day, the well-known actor Walter Pidgeon came to the factory to make an advertising film for a war bond campaign. The film would later be shown between feature movies at theaters across America. The song “Rosie the Riveter” was popular, and the actor wanted to include someone from the factory to be in the film. “Mom’s foreman told Walter Pidgeon, ‘I have a lady named Rose who is a riveter and fits that song.’ She got a part in the film,” Vickie says. As the human face of Rosie the Riveter, Rose was in the limelight. She didn’t seek publicity, Vickie says, but she was willing to tell her story.

After seeing female pilots transport many B-24s from her factory, Rose wanted to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), but was disqualified for the dangerous job because she was a widow with children. After the war, she held a variety of jobs to support her children: she went to cosmetology school, drove a school bus, and drove a taxi. She eventually remarried, and Vickie was born to the couple in 1954. Rose still wanted to learn to fly; although she was busy with the family’s construction business, she finally became a pilot in the early 1970s.

Vickie was one of three passengers on an ill-fated flight in 1978 that her mother piloted. A child of a family friend was sitting in the front seat and pressed the button that controlled the flaps. It was like putting on the brakes while the plane was trying to accelerate, Vickie explains, and it caused the plane to stall and crash. Two of the passengers were unhurt, but Vickie sustained a broken nose and facial lacerations. The pilot, Rose, was seriously injured. Her vision in one eye was badly impaired, and she lost one kidney. The accident, however, did not deter Rose. She was no longer able to pilot an aircraft, but continued to fly as a passenger.

We can do it!

Meanwhile, Vickie was mapping out her own place in the world. She had always been fascinated with rocks, so she planned to become a geologist. Somewhere along the way, however, she remembered the dental work she had done while she was in high school, and she changed her mind. “I am good at working with my hands, and I like science,” she says. “Dentistry is good for those two traits I was born with.” So, Vickie earned a Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene at the University of Louisville, gaining a good educational background for a career that has served her well, even now in semi-retirement. “I like helping people, and I approach things differently than a lot of hygienists,” she says. She encourages people to take better care of their teeth at home and tells patients, “the why behind the what.” Patients often ask her, “Why didn’t anyone tell me that?” she says.

One day, Vickie accompanied her then-husband, a skydiver, to a parachute drop zone in Kentucky. “At the drop zone, I was watching all these people packing their parachutes and having so much fun,” she says. “Then they would do it again. I thought, ‘You know, if it was that scary, they wouldn’t be having that much fun.’” So, Vickie decided to go on a tandem jump with an experienced skydiver. “I was hooked,” she says. “I knew I would be doing this again.”

Vickie ultimately became a skydiving instructor and a professional skydiver, often performing at airshows. During the week, she was a dental hygienist; on the weekends, she was a skydiving performer, jumpmaster, and instructor. “I don’t ever remember taking a ‘sick’ day off to go skydiving,” she says, “but I wanted to!”

After spending so much time jumping out of airplanes, it seemed natural to become a pilot, too; in 2002, Vickie earned her own pilot certificate. She was never interested in flying for the airlines, but considered becoming a corporate pilot. She finally decided to continue working as a dental hygienist and fly as a hobby. She and her husband Merwyn owned three different airplanes over 20 years, which they often flew to other states to visit family.  Although it was expensive to own the planes, Vickie says, there were many benefits. Instead of driving to her home state of Indiana in 16 hours, she could fly it in six. She didn’t have to go through security and didn’t have to take her shoes off; she could take her own food on the plane, as well as guns and dogs. They also could leave when they wanted to.

Although flying isn’t Vickie’s career, it is her passion. She belongs to many charitable aviation groups, such as Angel Flight, which provides medical patient transport; Challenge Air, which hosts special needs youth flying events; and Pilots N Paws, which flies animals to foster families. She is also a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Women in Aviation International, and the Ninety-Nines—founded by 99 female pilots, including Amelia Earhart, in 1929. She also strives to improve air safety through her work with the Federal Aviation Administration as a FAASTeam volunteer safety representative.

Vickie doesn’t like the heat and humidity here, but she does appreciate Texas’ commitment to flying. “Texas is a very pro-aviation state,” she says, “and Houston is huge. There are a lot of airports and a lot of flying!” Flying, Vickie knows, is inherently dangerous, but she chooses to persevere. “You live with the danger,” she says. “I am not going to live my life in fear. If that were the case, I would never leave the house.”