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Title: Model for Norman Rockwell's 'Rosie the Riveter' Dies at 92
Source:
NBC News
URL Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news ... -rosie-riveter-dies-92-n347266
Published: Apr 23, 2015
Author: M. Alex Johnson
Post Date: 2015-04-23 23:16:40 by Chuck_Wagon
Keywords: World War 2, Norman Rockwell
Views: 2592
Comments: 10
Model for Norman Rockwell's 'Rosie the Riveter' Dies at 92
By M. Alex Johnson
Mary Doyle Keefe, the telephone operator whom Norman Rockwell beefed up for his iconic "Rosie the Riveter" cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1943, has died at 92 in Simsbury, Connecticut, a funeral home confirmed.
Keefe, who lived in a retirement home for the last eight years of her life, died peacefully Tuesday, Cameron Funeral Home of Granbury said. A graveside service is scheduled for Saturday in Bennington.
The Post cover became one of the enduring symbols of homeland unity during World War II, when women stepped in to the jobs of millions of men who'd gone off to battle. It depicts Keefe holding a rivet gun and a lunchbox with the name Rosie on it, with her feet resting on a copy of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."
While a similar image — a cartoon of a woman also flexing her muscles under the word balloon "We Can Do It!" — has widely been identified as Rosie the Riveter, it was actually a Westinghouse Electric worker morale poster that didn't become famous until long after the war, according to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Keefe grew up in Arlington, Vermont — the next town over from West Arlington, where Rockwell lived. She was paid $10 to pose for the painting, which was reproduced on the cover of the magazine's May 29, 1943, issue and which hangs in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
In 1967, Rockwell sent Keefe, a small woman, a letter to apologize "for making me so large," she told The Saturday Evening Post in August 2013.
"I did have to make you into a sort of a giant," Rockwell wrote.
Keefe lived a quiet life, marrying and raising four children, according to the funeral home. But she did enjoy her fame. She regularly appeared at World War II commemorations, and in 1994, on the 50th anniversary of D-Day, she appeared on "The Tonight Show" and drilled several screws into a board, The Post said.
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I heard about this on the radio today.
Kind of disappointing that her real name wasn't Rosie.
#2. To: Chuck_Wagon (#0)
#3. To: buckeroo (#2)
My memory is of a red bandana on her head. Obviously, another icon of the war years.
#4. To: Fred Mertz (#3)
My memory is of a red bandana on her head.
Here is a different one that came out after the war.
A Westinghouse employee morale booster, apparently.
#5. To: Chuck_Wagon (#4)
Thanks.
Off topic; do you have a good/positive opinion of Chris Christie? I ask that because I believe you live in NJ. My dad does...lives in NJ and thinks highly of the guy.
#6. To: Fred Mertz (#5)
...opinion of Chris Christie...
I'm pretty much neutral on him.
It's rather difficult for me to have a 'high' opinion
of almost any politician. Gotta really stand out from
the crowd for me to even notice.
Christie does not.
And really, I pretty much gave up on New Jersey
gubernatorial politics after Jim Florio.
I hated that criminal bastard - and still do.
#7. To: Chuck_Wagon (#6)
Okay, thanks again.
I remember the Florio name but not the specific crimes.
I agree, they belong in their own class...politicians. Not human beings.
#8. To: Fred Mertz (#7) (Edited)
...but not the specific crimes.
How about we start with the biggest tax(es) hike in
New Jersey history?
Rabid gun-grabber?
Drove many companies out of the state and/or out
of business - causing many to lose their jobs -
I was one of them. Best job I ever had, too.
Many lost their homes also.
Remember the 'Hands Across New Jersey' tax protest
movement started by John Budzash the mailman?
If you mention this stuff to your father I bet
he'll remember some or all of it.
After leaving office Florio started a collection agency that got a state
contract to collect the business taxes that he raised while governor.
He's a total scumbag, basically.
I could go on....
#9. To: Chuck_Wagon (#8)
Okay, now I remember. He's the guy who taxed toilet paper. In the old days, essentials such as food and clothing were exempt from the sales tax until he came along.
#10. To: Fred Mertz (#9)
He's the guy who taxed toilet paper.
Maybe he did. I really don't remember the details.
I do remember that he nearly caused an
insurrection and almost got himself lynched.
A toilet paper tax would probably do it.
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