Naomi Parker Fraley, the real-life Rosie the Riveter has died at the age of 96. She was the inspiration behind the iconic feminist poster.
Fraley, who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, was well-known for her role in inspiring women to go to work in factories during World War II after she became an unintentional feminist icon.
A waitress in California, Fraley became a historical figure when she was among the first women to be assigned a job in the machine shop at the Naval Air Station in Almeda following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Working alongside her younger sister, Ada, Fraley drilled and patched aeroplane wings and operated rivet machines as part of the war effort.
In 1942, when Fraley was 20-years-old, she posed for a photographer touring the naval station, while wearing her iconic red and white polka-dot bandanna. The picture was soon picked up by magazines and newspapers and later in 1943, artist J. Howard Miller used the picture as inspiration for his Rosie the Riveter poster.