Posted on 03/14/2014 6:04:18 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Glenn Edward McDuffie, the young sailor from Houston who can be seen in one of the most iconic photos from the end of World War II, has died, according to family members.
The Navy veteran was 86.
McDuffie was 18 when he said he was captured in the famous kiss photo with nurse Edith Shain.
“I heard someone running and stopping right in front of us. I raised my head up, and it was a photographer,” McDuffie told the Houston Chronicle in 2007. “I tried to get my hand out of the way so I wouldn’t block her face, and I kissed her just long enough for him to take the picture.”
McDuffie collaborated with Houston Police Department’s forensic artist, Lois Gibson, in 2007 to prove that he was the sailor sharing that lusty kiss with Shain in Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945. The kiss was captured by famous Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt on V-J Day.
Gibson said when she first met McDuffie that he was frustrated at not being acknowledged as the sailor in the photo.
Gibson, who has done numerous reconstructions of crime victims’ faces using only a skull, carefully studied the bone structure of all 11 men who claimed to be the sailor before concluding the man in the photo was McDuffie.
After taking precise measurements of McDuffie’s wrists, knuckles, arms, forehead and ears, Gibson compared them to enlargements of the famous photo. To replicate the image, Gibson had McDuffie pose embracing a pillow, a substitute for the nurse.
She said Friday that McDuffie didn’t want a real-life stand in for the nurse.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
A beautiful photo with a beautiful human being..RIP and thank you for your service to this country
That was near the USS Midway in San Diego...:)
My wife sometimes says that, but usually only when she is really trying to tease me.
They spoofed it pretty effectively in the Watchmen graphic novel/movie. Not to everyone's taste of course -- I'm not Liberal on the topic, but I am a comic book geek. In the movie, the sailor misses his chance and walks past quite obliviously while the nurse is grabbed by the costimed heroine Silhouette. Not long after, the nurse and Silhouette are murdered by someone who leaves "Lesbian Whores" scrawled on the wall over their bodies.
Farewell to an American Historical Icon.
RIP Navy Hero.
Thank you for your service! And for giving me an idea.
My wife has her braces off in a couple months. We’re sixtysomethings and this will be the best way to celebrate.
;^)
You bet! Ahhh. I read a list one time that said the single most important thing to being happy in life is marrying the right person.
I think I agree with that...:)
Active Duty/Retiree ping.
The photo of the century was that of the Serbian assassin Princip killing archduke Ferdinand in Serajevo.
That event marked the rest of the 20th century and everything thereafter.
The forensic artist said he used to sign the pictures for $10 piece and he’d make at least $200 a hour. She said he got to fly first class for free and got free motel rooms all over the country. And women would want to kiss him. He’d let them kiss him on the cheek. He told her the kiss with the nurse didn’t have any tongue, but it was wet! Ha!
Uh, thanks for sharing.
I think.
I was thinking of an American photo.
We have a huge replica of this in Sarasota.
I think it is interesting how kids develop and absorb information and make rational connections like that...
When I was young, there were several similar connections I made... the Eisenhower dollar coins had a picture of my Great Grandfather on them... the old Shop Rite grocery store logo that has a woman on it... the woman was my Grandmother.
There were other associations my young mind made. Mom had a copy of Judy Collins' album Wildflowers that she she would play often... and I thought the song Both Sides Now was sung by an angel flying around in the clouds... and nearly 40 years later, in my mind, angels (and beautiful women) have long straight hippie hair like Sweet Judy Blue Eyes... because of my exposure to that record as a young child.
It is frightening what associations young kids might make in seeing flaming homos in assless chaps making out in the middle of the street at the St. Patrick's Day parade.
There is a photo of Prinzip being captured by the authorities but none of the assassination, IIRC. It happened so quickly due to a wrong turn.
Now, the King of Yugoslavia was assassinated in his open carriage in 1934 during a motorcade, but the newsreel cameras were already rolling & caught it on film.
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