The woman who many believe empowered housewives to leave their kitchens and enter the workplace left empty when men went to fight in World War II has died.
Naomi Parker Fraley was discovered in 2015 to have been the inspiration for the “Rosie the Riveter” poster tha decades earlier had become the symbol in which women realized “We Can Do It.”
Fraley was a factory worker at Alameda Naval Station when a photographer asked to take her photo. With her hair in a bandana, just like the poster, Fraley is believed to be the starting point for the artist's representation of women taking over what had been a men's world, CNN reported.
Fraley was only 20 years old and was working with her 18-year-old sister at the time of the war, KATU reported.
She realized it was her photo that helped started the movement during a convention of women WWII factory workers. Her photo was labeled as the poster's inspiration. Originally the photo was identified as that of Geraldine Hoff Doyle, but years of research confirmed in 2015 it was Fraley in the photo instead, CNN reported.
The man who made the identification, Dr. James Kimble, said of Fraley, "She didn't' think she did anything special. A lot of women did what she did. She just wanted her picture corrected," CNN reported.
Fraley died in Longview, Washington, Saturday, the BBC reported. She was 96.
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