Geraldine Hoff Doyle, the woman who inspired the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster during World War II, has died, according to the Los Angeles Times. She was 86.
Doyle was said to have been the model behind Rosie, who is shown rolling up her sleeves alongside the slogan “We Can Do It!” in the 1942 poster, aimed at getting women to work in factories for the war-time effort.
Her daughter Stephanie Gregg told the Times that she died in the Hospice House of Mid-Michigan in Lansing.
Her family said that after she graduated from high school at the age of 17, Doyle took a job in Ann Arbor, Mich., at a metal factory, according to the Washington Post.
As she was working in the factory, a UPI photographer came and took a shot of her working with machinery as she was wearing a polka-dot bandanna.
“She had just graduated, and some of the young men had left school to volunteer to fight," Gregg told the LA Times. "A couple had been killed, and she felt she wanted to do something for the war effort."
Gregg noted that the poster was slightly different than reality.
"She didn't have big, muscular arms," Gregg told the New York Times. "She was 5-foot-10 and very slender. She was a glamour girl. The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face—that's her."
