A riveting tale

As millions turned out for womens’ marches throughout the world last Saturday, an icon of the feminist movement passed on. Rosie the Riveter, aka Naomi Parker Fraley, died Sat., Jan. 20, in her home in Longview, Wash. She was 96, according to the New York Times.

Unsung for seven decades, Fraley was only recently discovered as “the real Rosie the Riveter” when James J. Kimble, a professor at Seton Hall University, took an interest in the story. Up until then, Rosie was believed to be Geraldine Hoff Doyle, a Michigan woman who died in 2010.

However, after a six-year odyssey combing through archival photos, old news clippings and interviews, Kimble stumbled on the truth. He found the original photo believed to be the inspiration for artist J. Howard Miller’s ubiquitous “We Can Do It” poster. Writing on the photo stated it was taken in Alameda, Calif., where Fraley worked in a Navy machine shop during World War II, and not Michigan, where Doyle worked. Future sleuthing found a copy of the photo in a newspaper, in which Fraley was identified as the subject.

When Kimble tracked down Fraley in person, she produced a clip of the same photo from another newspaper that she had hung onto over the years, cementing his hypothesis.

“I didn’t want fame or fortune, but I did want my own identity,” Fraley told People in 2016, when her identity as Rosie first became public. Reflecting on her newfound fame, she said, “The women of this country these days need some icons. If they think I’m one, I’m happy.”