VANCOUVER, Wash. (KATU/CNN) – Joe Blankenship is the son of the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,” also known as Naomi Parker Fraley. “When all this went down, my mom happens to be Rosie the Riveter, they go ‘what?’” Joe’s wife, Marnie Blankenship added, “Yeah, no not really. Yeah, really.”
The world may know her as Rose, but Joe thinks of her a little differently. “It’s my mom, I’m proud anyway. The thing is, I grew up with this woman, so she was special to me because of who she was.”
Before she was Joe’s Naomi Parker Fraley worked at Alameda Naval Air Station during World War Two. Marnie explained, “A photographer happened to be going through and taking pictures and he glommed on to her.” And he took the famous picture.
It wasn’t until 2009 when Naomi saw it publicized at a convention that she realized she was Rosie the Riveter.
Joe said, “I’m thankful that she got the notoriety that she deserves. The funny thing is she was a humble person and she didn’t care.”
To her, there were many Rosies, all chipping into the war effort. And for her family, she wasn’t just an icon, she embodied one. “Whatever the world threw at her, she’d just bounced back,” Joe said.
A single mother and sole breadwinner for her family in the 1950s, she fought for everything she had to the end. “She did it and she always did it on her own,” Joe added. “She was an amazing person.”
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