Woman featured in WWII workplace poster dies

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LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A memorial service will be held for a Michigan woman who said her photo was the inspiration for a popular poster lauding the efforts of working women during World War II.

Geraldine Doyle died Sunday in Lansing. She was 86. The memorial service is scheduled for Jan. 8.

The Lansing State Journal reports that a war production committee used Doyle's likeness from a photo taken when she was a 17-year-old factory worker in Ann Arbor in the illustrated "We Can Do It!" poster.

The head-scarfed wearing woman flexing her bicep encouraged women to enter the work force.

The poster and Norman Rockwell's similar painting of a female factory worker followed a popular song titled "Rosie the Riveter." That name was attached to women performing jobs traditionally held by men.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.