Sailor in famous photo of V-J Day in Times Square
George Mendonsa, the ecstatic sailor shown in a photograph kissing a woman in New York’s Times Square celebrating the end of World War II, has died. He was 95.
Mendonsa’s daughter, Sharon Molleur, told the Providence Journal that Mendonsa fell and had a seizure Sunday at the assisted-living facility in Middletown, R.I., where he lived with his wife of 70 years.
Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945. Known as V-J Day, it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States.
The photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt became one of the most famous of the 20th century.
It was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.
Friedman died in 2016 at the age of 92.
Mendonsa died two days before his 96th birthday.