Almost Everyone Has Seen Her Picture...

[Lord Jim]

But almost no one knows her name...

Woman in Iconic V-J Day Times Square Kiss Photo Dies at 92



The woman in an iconic photo shown kissing an ecstatic sailor in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. Greta Zimmer Friedman was 92.

Friedman, who fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old, died Thursday at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, from complications of old age, her son, Joshua Friedman, said.

Greta Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse's uniform when she became part of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.

On Aug. 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered to the United States, people spilled into the New York City streets from restaurants, bars and movie theaters, celebrating the news.

That's when George Mendonsa spotted Friedman, spun her around and planted a kiss. The two had never met. In fact, Mendonsa was on a date with an actual nurse, Rita Petry, who would later become his wife.

The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt is called "V-J Day in Times Square," but is known to most simply as "The Kiss." Mendonsa said that in some photos of the scene, Petry could be seen smiling in the background.

Another image from a different angle was taken by U.S. Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen but it was Eisenstaedt's photo that became seared in people's minds. His photo was first published in Life magazine, buried deep within its pages. Over the years, the photo gained recognition, and several people claimed to be the kissing couple.

In an August 1980 issue of Life, 11 men and three women said they were the subjects. It was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.

Joshua Friedman said his mother recalled the events happening in an instant.

"It wasn't that much of a kiss," Friedman said in an interview with the Veterans History Project in 2005. "It was just somebody celebrating. It wasn't a romantic event."

Both of Friedman's parents died in the Holocaust, according to Lawrence Verria, co-author of "The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II."

Friedman will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to her late husband, Dr. Misha Friedman.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/woma ... s-42008668

[dales]

Thanks for posting this, Jim.

The WW2 generation is indeed the greatest!

[RayThom]

Greta & George:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sailor-nurs ... -reunited/

[rubato]

Thanks for posting this, Jim.

The WW2 generation is indeed the greatest!

Everything always used to be better. Nothing will ever be better again.


yrs,
rubato

[Bicycle Bill]

Thanks for posting this, Jim.

The WW2 generation is indeed the greatest!

Everything always used to be better. Nothing will ever be better again.

yrs,
rubato

So that means Trump is lying when he says he will "MaKKKe America Great Again".
No surprise there.

-"BB"-

[dales]

Thanks for posting this, Jim.

The WW2 generation is indeed the greatest!

Everything always used to be better. Nothing will ever be better again.


yrs,
rubato

Only a brain-dead dunderfcuk like Richard (aka rubato), would forget what the WW2 generation went through (the great depression and WW2) and take his own mean-spirited spin on what I posted. He delights on sh!tting on people's posts, believing he's a clever little turd.

You add nothing to this bbs, Richard.

Go find some cats in your neighborhood to gas.

[Jarlaxle]

The only thing Ozzie adds to this BBS is the BS.

[Beer Sponge]

Uh, Jarl, I add the BS.

BS