Naomi Parker Fraley, real-life Rosie the Riveter, dies at 96

Naomi Parker Fraley, real-life Rosie the Riveter, dies at 96

Jan. 23 (UPI) — Naomi Parker Fraley, a cultural icon recognized as the inspiration for the famous World War II-era “Rosie the Riveter” poster, died this weekend at age 96.

Fraley died from cancer while in hospice care in Longview, Wash., according to her family.

The Rosie the Riveter photo was snapped when Fraley was a factory worker at California’s Alameda Naval Station. She was one of millions of women who filled the workforce during World War II.

Her daughter-in-law, Marnie Blankenship, said a photographer just happened to take her picture, which was originally used to deglamorize women and show them proper workplace attire.

More than 60 years later, while Fraley was at a convention for women who worked during the war, she saw the photograph of her all those years ago, promoted as Rosie the Riveter in the “We can do it” poster.

At the time, a woman named Geraldine Hoff Doyle was credited as the one in the photograph but in 2015 the original photograph was found with the caption naming the woman as Naomi Parker.

A public memorial is planned for Fraley on March 10 in Longview.

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