The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America: Pat King Harms Responded to Nation's Call in Rosie Legacy Fashion

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Pat King Harms Responded to Nation's Call in Rosie Legacy Fashion

Pat "Rosie" King at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Foundry

During Women’s History Month 2023, we recognize the contribution of Patricia Ruth “Pat” King Harms for her work in the defense industry. During World War II, every man, woman and child was called upon to defeat the Axis Powers. Recruited in national "Rosie the Riveter" campaigns, women responded to our nation’s call by filling jobs traditionally held by men.

Pat's life intertwined with much of the history of the 20th century. Her grandfather, Louis Wyeth, developed the famous Wyeth’s Sage and Sulphur hair tonic that was advertised in newspapers coast to coast. After his business failed, Louis settled on homestead land in Nebraska. Pat's parents John and Dorothy Wyeth King homesteaded, rented and developed land into a 10,000-acre cattle ranch. Since Pat was born during Prohibition, the doctor who delivered her asked to be paid in bootleg whiskey. Those merry times were followed by banks’ failing, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and loss of the King family ranch. Pat moved west to work in her sister's apple orchard. In 1942, after deciding business school wasn't for her, Pat signed up to sell war bonds and make metal castings at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard foundry. At age 18, she worked alongside much older men. The young men, like her boyfriend, Vince Harms, were away fighting deadly battles overseas.

When the war ended in 1945, young servicemen returned to jobs the women had been doing. For Pat it was fine. She married Vince, took up volunteer work for the blood bank and Cancer Society and started her family. Born with underdeveloped lungs, tragically, Pat lost her only son at 13 months. With strong resolve, Pat poured devotion and love into caring for Vince and raising their three daughters. In 2011, Pat proudly accepted the honor of recognition on the Washington Women in Trades “Rosie Legacy” calendar for her nontraditional role as a laborer to support the war effort of the 1940s.

Photo of Pat King Harms (1924-2016) courtesy of her daughter Judi Harms Edwards; Sources: Rae Hight, Pat Harms "A Brief Memoir" (prepared 6 Sep 2005), 4-5; Christina Wyeth Baker, The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2019), 93, 395-396; Keeley Smith, "Calendar honors Port Orchard resident's wartime shipyard work," The Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA), 18 Jan 2011.

THE WYETH AND WYTHE FAMILIES OF AMERICA

Written by Christina Wyeth Baker and published by Heritage Books of Berwyn Heights, MD, 2019, 8½x11, paperback, 558 pages, B5897, ISBN-10 0788458973 is $55.00 plus shipping and handling. To buy the book and have it inscribed by the author, please click here to email Christina Wyeth Baker. Additionally, the publisher, Heritage Books, sells the book on their website as well as through several well-known booksellers. For more information, please check out and like our Facebook site @WyethWythefamilies

About Jeff Wyeth

In 1977, while stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany, Jeff began writing letters of inquiry to family all over the U.S. One of the first responses came from Palm Beach architect Marion Sims Wyeth who designed the exterior of Mar-a-Lago. Marion sent Jeff his privately published booklet detailing the discovery of Nicholas Wyeth's birthplace in Saxtead. On page three of the booklet, Marion said he “is issuing this account at the present time in its very incomplete condition for fear that the notes might be … lost to some other member of the family who may be interested in carrying on this search.” Jeff took the word "search" literally. Finally after 33 years of searching, in 2010, Jeff convinced his sister to write a book based on his collections. Jeff and Christina are from the line of Nicholas' 3rd great grandson, Stephen Wyeth, who transplanted the Wyeth name from MA to OH. Stephen’s father Ebenezer Wyeth III, the oldest child of Ebenezer Wyeth Jr. and Mary Winship, grew up on the shores of Cambridge’s Fresh Pond. In 2020, Jeff and his wife Teresa celebrated 40 years of marriage. They are the proud parents and grandparents of one son and three grandchildren. Jeff serves as an evangelist for the Church of Christ in Grayling, MI.

ABOUT JAMIE WYETH

Celebrated artist, James Browning “Jamie” Wyeth really needs no introduction. Undoubtedly, Jamie is now the most famous Wyeth-named descendant of Nicholas Wyeth. For over six decades, Jamie has painted portraits of pigs, presidents and ballet dancers with equal skill. Walking in the legendary footsteps of his father, Andrew, and grandfather, Newell Convers "N. C.", Jamie has distinguished himself in his own right as a contemporary realist painter. Like his father and grandfather, Jamie’s creativity thrives in the unique environments of the Brandywine region of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as the mid-coast of Maine. Jamie descends from Nicholas Wyeth’s great grandson, Noah Wyeth. Interestingly, when her mother died, Jamie’s third great grandmother, Lydia Convers Francis, age nine, went to live with Christina and Jeff’s ancestors, Ebenezer Wyeth Jr. and Mary Winship, on the shores of Cambridge’s Fresh Pond. At age 25, Lydia married the nephew of her benefactors, Captain Job Wyeth.

Library Holdings for Christina Wyeth Baker's Book

The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America is owned by The Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN; the Saint Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO; the Mid-Continent Public Library Independence, MO; the Wichita Public Library, Wichita, KS; the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, DC; the Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge, MA and the Licking County Genealogical Society at the Licking County Library, Newark, OH.