Rosa Mae Tyner, a 23-year ILWU worker and a member of Locals 10 and 91, passed away on October 9, 2021 in Troy, AL at the age of 67. She was born in Troy, AL on Feb. 16, 1954, and was the youngest of 10 children – one of whom was the late Congressman John Lewis, a prominent leader of the Civil Rights movement. During his nationally televised memorial service, Rose gave a moving tribute to her brother.

Rose left Troy with her husband and two boys to settle in the Bay Area. Her husband got a maintenance job at the Port of Oakland, and Rose worked in a pencil factory. In 1989, she won the lottery when her card was the third to be drawn from the list of outside applicants chosen at random for a casual position with Local 10.

She arrived with valuable union experience, having participated in “walk-off with other seamstresses at a plant when I was young,” Tyner said. But the only prior knowledge she had about longshoring was the result of a spelling list in the 11th grade that included the words “longshore” and “stevedore.” She recalled mastering that lesson easily but found the job she started in 1989 to be challenging.

 “I was afraid of heights, but couldn’t afford to turn down a job, so I took a ‘top-man’ assignment one night and got into a crane basket that lifted me up to the top of a pile where I worked up my nerve to put cones on those containers,” said Tyner in an interview with the Dispatcher in 2018. “It was a lot easier to do after I got my first paycheck!”

After her retirement in 2012, she returned to her roots in Troy. She was known as a wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother. She showed boundless love for everyone she came in contact with. She will be remembered fondly here at the ILWU.