Mary Keefe
n Mary Louise Doyle Keefe, working woman who was lionised as ‘Rosie the Riveter’ thanks to artist Norman Rockwell.
Born: 30 July, 1922, in Bennington, Vermont. Died: 21 April, 2015, in Simsbury, Connecticut, aged 92.
immortality was thrust upon Mary Keefe, when, as a 19-year-old telephone operator, she was chosen by the artist Norman Rockwell as the model for what would become a game-changing Second World War poster which helped galvanise the American war effort after the US finally entered the fray.
Keefe was transformed into the working heroine Rosie the Riveter, a graphic call-to-arms to American womanhood, to take up jobs left vacant as their menfolk went to war.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad