Naomi Parker Fraley, the woman who inspired the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster, has died. She was 96 years old.
Fraley’s death was confirmed by the New York Times. She died in Longview, Washington.
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Fraley’s role in inspiring the Rosie the Riveter poster during World War II was almost unknown for over 70 years. It was not until 2016 that she came forward.
In 1942, she appeared in a photo with a bandanna around her hair as she worked on machinery for the war. It was likely that photo that inspired the J. Howard Miller poster.
In a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, Fraley said she thought the woman in the poster looked like her, but “nobody ever mentioned it.”
She said in 2009, she went to the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park and noticed the photo. But it had the wrong name in the caption.
“I couldn’t believe it because it was me in the photo, but there was somebody else’s name in the caption: Geraldine,” Fraley told PEOPLE. “I was amazed.”
For years, Fraley herself had no idea she played a role in the creation of the legendary poster. Geraldine Hoff Doyle assumed she was the woman in the photo, and was considered the “real-life Rosie the Riveter.” When Doyle died in 2010, even the New York Times reported that she was the inspiration.
To add to the confusion, other World War II cultural icons gained the name “Rosie.” Normal Rockwell also created a painting of a muscular woman in overalls. His model, Mary Doyle Keefe, died in 2015.
In 2010, scholar James J. Kimble began a search to find the real Rosie. In 2016, he determined that Fraley was the woman in that 1942 photo. During his search, he found an original copy of the photo, which named “Naomi Parker” as the woman in the photo.
After confirming that, Kimble next had to figure out if the photo really did inspire Miller’s poster.
“The timing is pretty good,” he told the Times. “The poster appears in Westinghouse factories in February 1943. Presumably they’re created weeks, possibly months, ahead of time. So I imagine Miller’s working on it in the summer and fall of 1942.”
Fraley is survived by her son, four stepsons, two stepdaughters, two sisters, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“The women of this country these days need some icons,” Fraley told PEOPLE. “If they think I’m one, I’m happy about that.”
Photo credit: National Museum of American History
