Today one of World War II’s iconic “Rosie The Riveters” punched out on the time clock for the last time. Geraldine Hoff Doyle passed away at 86. A news photo of her working in a metal pressing plant is said to have inspired the famous ”We Can Do It!” poster encouraging women to seek industrial work in the war effort. While Norman Rockwell painted a woman doing war work for a magazine cover, it is the poster that has has become a pop culture icon.
There were several other women across the country regarded as “Rosie the Riveter” including Rose Will Monroe, Rose Bonavita, Mary Doyle Keefe, and Rosalind P. Walter. So who was the real “Rosie”? All of them, and many more.
Image (“Rosie the Blogger, after J. Howard Miller”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: Geraldine Doyle, Geraldine Hoff Doyle, Michigan, Rosie the Riveter, Second World War, We Can Do It, World War II, World War Two, WWII
December 31, 2010 at 1:34 am
We Can Do It! And we did. What different days than now when we know nothing of the war or its participants. We don’t take a hill, it’s a crapshoot out there and nobody wins.
Our women really stepped up to become Rosie the Riveter, then were placed back in the home with suburban tracts, state-of-the-art kitchens and vacuum cleaners. No wonder they rebelled in the sixties! Here’s to an original, an icon that will be missed. Best to her family. D
December 31, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Mike, your readers might also want to check the American Rosie the Riveter Association http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~usarra/index.htm which was founded by Fran Carter (I met Fran and her paratrooper husband, John, and bloged about his Thanksgiving in 1994 http://habap.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/thanksgiving-1944/ )