She is World War II’s hero on the home front, the symbol of every working woman and the face of female resolve. Rosie the Riveter is Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting that first appeared on the 1943 Memorial Day cover of The Saturday Evening Post and has since become a legendary emblem for millions of American women.

But what most people don’t know, is that the painting was originally inspired by one woman named Mary Doyle Keefe.

Keefe agreed to pose for Rockwell when she was just 19 years old and working as a telephone operator. With no anticipation that the painting would explode into one of World War II’s most widely used pieces of propaganda, Keefe never thought twice about short lived modeling career.

The popular Rosie image is often confused with the “We Can Do It” poster below, a completely different wartime poster.

The Westinghouse poster, is actually believed to be based on a 17-year-old factory worker named Geraldine Hoff, who died in 2010.

Norman Rockwell’s original painting of Rosie the Riveter sold for $5 million in 2002, and can be seen on display at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.

After her unexpected stardom as the face of one of the nation’s most recognized paintings, Keefe went on to become a dental hygienist, a wife, a mother, a grandmother and great grandmother before passing at age 92 on April 21, 2015.

Today we pay tribute to the woman who deserved more recognition than she ever got.

Watch as the true Rosie the Riveters receive an honor that is long overdue in the video below.

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