The Lansing State Journal noted the passing of the woman who was the inspiration for the "we Can Do It" poster from WW II. The article begins:
Her face became the symbol of women's empowerment, and her death is the end of an era.
Geraldine Hoff Doyle of Lansing, the woman behind an iconic image of a bandana-clad, muscle-flexing Rosie the Riveter during WWII, has died, according to her family.
Doyle was 86 upon her death, a lifetime older than the 17-year-old factory worker who was captured in a United Press International photo in a metal-pressing plant near Ann Arbor.
Her photo was later used by the U.S. War Production Coordinating Committee in an illustrated poster called, "We Can Do It!"
The article says that Doyle didn't realize it was her in the poster until 1984. The photo to the right was taken in 1941 when Doyle was 17 and appears on to the cover of a 1986 Time-Life book, 'The Patriotic Tide: 1940-1950'.
You can hear a tribute to Doyle over at NPR and you may want to check out the song Rosie the Riveter by the Four Vagabonds and Wikipedia's entry on Rosie the Riveter. In closing here's an excellent video from the Library of Congress (yes, the Library of Congress is on YouTube ... my life just got better).
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