TAPS: Rosie the Riveter

Editor’s Note: This is not an intelligence passing, but it is one that represents something extraordinary in American history. The pressures of the war demonstrated the ability of women to perform in many formerly all-male industries. Rosie and her sisters changed everything about how our society worked. It is worth some reflection on just how Rosie’s generation (and my own mother) changed things in this country. Naomi Fraley exemplified that. And, of course, she never got a penny for her transformation to icon. Credit to American Admiralty Books:

https://www.facebook.com/American-Admiralty-Books-130966820381549/

20 January 2018 Naomi Parker Fraley, AKA “Rosie the Riveter”

THE REAL LIFE “ROSIE THE RIVETER” DIED SATURDAY AT AGE 96

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Naomi Parker Fraley who died Saturday at the age of 96 is widely accepted as the model for the famous WWII poster titled “WE CAN DO IT”. During WWII she was a 20 year old production line worker at the Alameda Naval Station, Alameda, California. She was just one of the millions of American women who provided much of the war materials production labor force; in that rare time of unity among the American people when we were united against a truly dreaded common enemy.

NAOMI PARKER FRALEY IMAGES FROM A TWEET BY
Kim Shepard
@SeattleShepard

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For many years Ms Fraley’s image was misidentified as that of another woman who bore a striking resemblance to her, Ms Geraldine Hoff Doyle a 17 year old worker in the same plant. MS Doyle died at age 86 in 2010 before learning of the misidentification, Historian James J. Kimble of Seton Hall University has stated that Doyle who resembles Fraley was first identified as the model for the poster based on her photo from the time and in subsequent historical narratives she was accepted as the model for “Rosie the Riveter” until 2015 when actual photos connected to the iconic poster’s production were uncovered clearly bearing the label of the woman now known as Naomi Parker Fraley. Both Doyle and Fraley were simply photographed at work, never paid as a model, or notified that their stylized image was being fashioned into a poster. Neither woman ever sought or received a dime in compensation and by all reports were simply happy to have contributed to the war effort.
Naomi Parker Fraley was photographed as she worked at the Alameda Naval Station.

 

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NAOMI PARKER FARLEY AT WORK ON THE PRODUCTION LINE: More Information
and images @
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/23/us/fraley-rosie-the-riveter-dies/index.html

hith inspiration rosie riveter dies

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Geraldine Doyle : You can read more about Ms Doyle at
http://www.history.com/news/inspiration-for-iconic-rosie-the-riveter-image-dies.

Written by Vic Socotra

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