The model for one of America’s most iconic images is still beautiful at the ripe age of 95!
When Naomi Parker-Fraley first saw the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster, she recalls, “I did think it looked like me, but nobody ever mentioned it.”
She never saw herself as a symbol of modern feminism, because 6 million other women entered the workforce during World War II.
The photo, showing 20-year-old Parker-Fraley sporting her signature red-and-white-polka-dot bandana and working on a turret lathe, was taken in 1942 by a photographer touring the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, and featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide.
“It ran in newspapers from San Francisco to Washington,” Parker-Fraley says. “I even got fan mail!” – People Magazine has the full story.
26 Mar 1942, Alameda, California, USA — Pretty Naomi Parker is as easy to look at as overtime pay on the week’s check. And she’s a good example of an old contention that glamor is what goes into the clothes, and not the clothes. Pre-war fashion frills are only a discord in war-time clothing for women. Naomi wears heavy shoes, black suit, and a turban to keep her hair out of harm’s way (we mean the machine, you dope). — Image by © Corbis All This and Overtime, Too