Mary Doyle Keefe | Model for Rockwell's 'Riveter,' 92

Mary Doyle Keefe, 92, the model for Norman Rockwell's 1943 Rosie the Riveter painting that symbolized the millions of American women who went to work on the home front during World War II, died Tuesday in Simsbury, Conn., after a brief illness.

Ms. Keefe grew up in Arlington, Vt., where she met Rockwell and posed for his painting when she was a 19-year-old telephone operator. The painting - not to be confused with a poster by a Pittsburgh artist depicting a woman flexing her arm under the words We Can Do It - was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in May 1943.

Although Ms. Keefe was petite, Rockwell's Rosie had large arms, hands, and shoulders. Rockwell wanted Rosie to show strength and modeled her body on Michelangelo's Isaiah, which is on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Ms. Keefe, who graduated from Temple University with a degree in dental hygiene, was never a riveter herself. She was paid $5 for each of two mornings she posed for Rockwell and his photographer.

Twenty-four years later, Rockwell sent her a letter calling her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and apologizing for the hefty body in the painting.

"I did have to make you into a sort of a giant," he wrote.

The painting is part of the permanent collection at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. - AP