Mary Doyle Keefe, the muse for Norman Rockwell’s iconic 1943 “Rosie the Riveter” painting, died Tuesday at The McLean Village Community in Simsbury, Connecticut. She was 92 years old.
The iconic painting helped to represent the millions of American women who went to work in factories and shipyards during World War II, most of whom replaced male workers who had enlisted in the military and were fighting in the war.
Keefe met Rockwell in Arlington, Vermont when she was 19 years old and was working as a telephone operator. She posed for the painting, which was then featured on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in May 1943.