The model who posed for Norman Rockwell's iconic 1943 "Rosie the Riveter" painting, Mary Doyle Keefe, has died after a brief illness on Tuesday in Simsbury, Connecticut, at the age of 92.  

The painting, "Rosie the Riveter" is a cultural symbol for millions of American women during World War II who worked in the factories and shipyards to produce munitions and war supplies.

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Keefe grew up and met Rockwell in Arlington, Vermont.  When she was 19 years old and working as a telephone operator, she posed for Rockwell's painting that made it to the cover of the May 29, 1943 edition of the Saturday Evening Post.

Keefe in reality was a petite young woman but Rockwell painted her with large hands, arms, and shoulders. The painting depicts Rosie, red-haired and wearing work overalls, sitting on a wooden stool, holding a sandwich in her left hand with her right arm resting on a lunchbox with her name on it and a rivet gun on her lap with her feet stepping on a copy of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf." A huge waving American flag fills the background behind the figure of Rosie.

Rockwell's intention was to paint Rosie showing strength by taking inspiration from the physique of Michelangelo's Isaiah found on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Keefe was paid $5 each for two mornings for Rockwell and his photographer, Gene Pelham, whose pictures Rockwell based his painting from.  In an interview in 2002, Keefe said that the first day, she just sat there while the photographer takes all the pictures. She was asked to show up the following day wearing a blue shirt and penny loafers.

Twenty four years later after posing for Rockwell, Keefe received a letter from the artist who said that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  He also apologized for making her look like a giant in the painting. 

The "Rosie the Riveter" painting was later reproduced as a poster to sell war bonds across the country.  It is now part of the permanent collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

TagsNorman Rockwell, model, painting, Rosie the Riveter