The woman pictured sharing a kiss with a sailor in an iconic photograph of people celebrating the end of the Second World War has died aged 92.
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Greta Friedman died this week of pneumonia, according to her son, Joshua Friedman.
She will be laid to rest beside her late veteran husband in Arlington National Cemetery, where USA military are buried to commemorate their service and sacrifice, which was detailed previously in the Inquisitr.
Friedman said she did not see the photo until the 1960s, when she came upon a book of Eisenstaedt’s images and found the moment immortalized on the page.
The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt is called “V-J Day in Times Square, ‘ but is known to most as ‘The Kiss”.
In fact, Mendonsa was on a date with an actual nurse, Rita Petry, who would later become his wife. News of Japan’s surrender broke while they were watching a movie. Times Square quickly filled with a joyous crowd to celebrate the news. “So when I saw the nurse I grabbed her, and I kissed her”.
Many people claimed to be the embracing couple caught in a clinch, but it was only in the 1980s that the true identity of Friedman and Mendosa became public. In her early days she was involved in the NY theater community. She met Friedman, a doctor, and they married in 1956.
One the day that World War II was declared won by the Allied forces, the streets of NY overflowed with celebration, and in one iconic moment, a single image came to define that victory and ebullition. American daily “The New York Times” at that time had reported the news using this photograph which had captured a defining moment of the 20th century. He shot one of the best known photos of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels at a League of Nations conference in Geneva in 1933.
In recent years, the Times Square photo has prompted discussion over whether Mendonsa’s actions were appropriate; Zimmer did not anticipate the kiss. Edith Shain, who died in 2010, also claimed she was the nurse in white.
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“The excitement of the war bein’ over, plus I had a few drinks”.
