Model for Norman Rockwell's iconic Rosie the Riveter painting dies at 92

(Image credit: Twitter.com/TheBostonGlobe)

last updated 23 April 2015

Mary Doyle Keefe, who served as the model for Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter painting while a 19-year-old telephone operator, has died, following a short illness. She was 92.

Keefe grew up in Arlington, Vermont, and met Rockwell, who lived in West Arlington, in 1943. She spent two Saturdays posing for the picture, which was on the cover of the May 29, 1943, Saturday Evening Post, earning $5 each time. She was petite, but Rockwell envisioned Rosie being strong, and modeled her after Michelangelo's Isaiah at the Sistine Chapel, with large arms, hands, and shoulders. More than two decades later, Rockwell wrote Keefe a letter, telling her she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and saying he was sorry for making her so big, writing, "I did have to make you into sort of a giant."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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