In celebration of Labor Day, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society recognizes the many American workers who mobilized to help win World War II. In March of 1942, as part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program, the U.S. Maritime Commission awarded Brunswick Marine Construction Corporation a contract to build thirty Liberty ships. The contract transferred to the J.A. Jones Construction Company in January 1943. Over the next two and a half years, more than 16,000 workers flocked to Brunswick to participate in the war effort. Among them were welders, shipwrights, engineers, and many other tradespeople—including a pipefitter and shipyard rigger named James C. Kinsey.
Coastal Georgia Historical Society
James Kinsey
Born in Helen, Georgia, Kinsey, like many other workers, came to Brunswick specifically to work at the shipyard. In order to accommodate the population growth, many families with homes in Brunswick rented their spare bedrooms to boarders. Many even rented out bedrooms for eight-hour periods to accommodate shift workers.
James Kinsey’s daughter, Diane, remembers that her father said he lived in the “Goodyear house” while in Brunswick. The house’s exact location isn’t clear, but James’s memories of the town and the surrounding area certainly were. He spoke throughout his life of his love for Georgia and the coastal city where he spent the war. Diane also explained that James lost both of his parents at a young age and left his hometown shortly after their deaths to make his own path. This, she says, is one of the reasons the area was so important to him: even in hard times, it was a place that welcomed newcomers and came together as a community.
Along with many of the workers at J.A. Jones, Kinsey was a union member. In fact, he was a member of three unions, including the local Brunswick Marine Pipefitters, Steam Engineers and Plumbers Union No. 177. After the war, Kinsey left Brunswick and continued to work as a skilled tradesman and a union member. He moved around the country to several different nuclear facilities, including Oak Ridge, where he met his wife. Kinsey worked as a pipefitter at each site, and his daughter remembers him as a hard worker, a storyteller, and an “extremely good yodeler.”
Throughout his life, including his time at the J.A. Jones Construction Company, James Kinsey kept a detailed written history of his life, and held onto documents like his union dues booklets, work permits, and his shipyard identification card. The Coastal Georgia Historical Society was fortunate to receive both a donation of these important documents and more information about his life from his daughter, Diane Kinsey-Dempsey.
Coastal Georgia Historical Society
Kinsey Union Dues Booklet
Coastal Georgia Historical Society presents this article and images from our archives as part of our mission “to connect people to Coastal Georgia’s dynamic history.” The Society operates the iconic St. Simons Lighthouse Museum and the World War II Home Front Museum, housed in the Historic Coast Guard Station at East Beach. To learn more about the Society, its museums, diverse programs, and membership, please visit coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
