Ironic Choice

I am not alone in my enjoyment of seeing Rosie the Riveter posters and other likenesses,in fact she has become a popular choice for female tattoos. With that thought in mind you can imagine my disbelief when I recently found out that Geraldine Hoff Doyle,(the woman Rosie's iconic poster was based on) only worked briefly in a defense factory as she was a cellist and afraid of hurting her hands. I had mistakenly assumed all these years that she was one of the women who had stepped up to the plate to fill the positions vacated by the men serving in the military,and stayed with the job until the men returned. In Mrs. Doyle's defense she had just learned of a previous worker injuring her hands doing her job. Neither Geraldine nor her family realized the poster was modeled after her until they read a magazine article about the poster's origin in 1984. After finding out that she was "Rosie" she signed posters in Michigan until arthritis made it no longer possible. Mrs. Doyle died at age 86 in 2010.