She Can Do It!

My sweet little cat Laura Earle was in between licks on her paw when she struck this pose as Geraldine Hoff Doyle, who was the model for the 1942 Westinghouse Corporation poster that we know today as "Rosie The Riveter." She worked as a metal presser in Michigan for just a few weeks before quitting for fear of a hand injury (she was a cello player). While at the job she posed for a photograph which gained her a $10 payment. She was 17 years old --my Mom's age exactly.

Geraldine never knew the connection, nor saw the photo until 1984. That's when she learned that she had been the original face of the American icon of the woman who proved to herself and to the whole society that she could do a so-called "man's job" and do it well.

Of course, Laura Earle knows all this better than I do --she's a gal!