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.
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Greta Zimmer Friedman’s son says his mother died Thursday at a Richmond, Va., hospital of what he called complications from old age.
The black-and-white photograph of Friedman, dressed in a white uniform, being embraced and kissed by a sailor to celebrate the end of World War II became an enduring image. It became famous when it was published as part of a special issue dedicated to the celebration in Life magazine.
Eisenstaedt, a photojournalist who produced more than 2,500 picture stories and 90 covers for Life, did not have a definitive record of the man and woman in the photo.
Mendonsa was in Manhattan on his first date with Rita Petry.
Friedman, was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform on August 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day the Japanese surrendered. 1945, after the news of Japans surrender effectively heralded the end of World War II. Mendonsa says that in some photos of the scene, Petry could be seen smiling in the background. A third sister fled to Mandate Palestine and her parents were killed in the Holocaust, according to Lawrence Verria, co-author of “The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II”.
As a young woman, she became involved in the NY theater scene, meeting and befriending actors such as Harry Belafonte and Rod Steiger.
“It wasn’t my choice to be kissed”, she added.
Mendonsa, now lives in Newport, Rhode Island.
Friedman is survived by her two children and her three grandchildren. It was years until Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.
The photograph, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century Greta Friedman, centre, and her grandkids Caroline, left, and Michael, right.
She died from pneumonia.
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“(But) she didn’t assign any bad motives to George in that circumstance, that situation, that time”.
