Naomi Parker Fraley dead: 'Real-life Rosie the Riveter' dies aged 96
A feminist icon
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Your support makes all the difference.The real-life Rosie the Riveter has died at the age of 96.
Naomi Parker Fraley, the inspiration behind the iconic feminist Rosie the Riveter passed away on Saturday.
Fraley, who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, was well-known for her role in inspiring women to go to work in factories during World War II after she became an unintentional feminist icon.
Originally a waitress in California, Fraley became a historical figure when she was among the first women to be assigned a job in the machine shop at the Naval Air Station in Almeda following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Working alongside her younger sister, Ada, Fraley drilled and patched aeroplane wings and operated rivet machines as part of the war effort.
In 1942, when Fraley was 20-years-old, she posed for a photographer touring the naval station, while wearing her iconic red and white polka-dot bandanna.
Featuring her hard at work on a turret lathe, the picture was soon picked up by magazines and newspapers - who widely circulated the picture of Fraley.
And in 1943, artist J. Howard Miller used the picture as inspiration for his Rosie the Riveter poster.
However, despite an unmistakable resemblance to the Rosie the Riveter poster, the photo was originally attributed to Geraldine Hoff Doyle, another woman who worked in the factories during the war.
Fraley was unaware of the case of mistaken identity for thirty years. But after eventually discovering she was, in fact, the real-life Rosie the Riveter, Fraley told People magazine in 2016 she was “amazed.”
The Rosie the Riveter poster was originally created to inspire the millions of women working in factories during World War II, but Fraley’s message still resonates with women today.
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