Rosie the Riveter

Naomi Parker Fraley, the real Rosie the Riveter, dies at 96

Naomi Parker Fraley, the real Rosie the Riveter, dies at 96

Unsung for seven decades, the real Rosie the Riveter was a Bay Area woman named Naomi Parker Fraley. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 20-year-old Naomi went to work at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, among the first of some 3,000 women to do war work there. She was assigned to the machine shop, where her duties included drilling, patching airplane wings and, fittingly, riveting. It was there that the Acme photographer captured Naomi Parker, her hair done up in a bandanna for safety, at her lathe.