Naomi Parker Fraley, the woman who inspired World War II’s iconic Rosie the Riveter figure, has died at age 96.
When she was 20, Mrs Fraley and her sister were among the first women to work at a Naval Air Station in Alameda following the attack on Pearl Harbour. There, she was responsible for drilling, patching aircraft wings and riveting, The New York Times reports.
Mrs. Fraley was only recently identified as the real World War II factory worker who became the face of J. Howard Miller’s iconic poster. For decades, a number of other women were assumed to be Rosie until scholar James J. Kimble identified Mrs Fraley as the woman who actually inspired the iconic imagery.
“I didn’t want fame or fortune,” Mrs Fraley told PEOPLE in 2016 about why she remained quiet for decades. “But I did want my own identity.”
Years after the war, the famous poster of Rosie flexing her arm under declaration ‘We Can Do It’ has become a feminist symbol; it recently inspired a number of incredible signs at the 2018 Women’s Marches.
