Sailor in iconic V-J Day Times Square kiss photo dies at 95

M, (TO 1 AP The ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times STuare celebrating the end of orld ar ,, died Sunday. George Mendonsa was .

Mendonsa fell and had a seizure at the assisted liv ing facility in Middletown, 5hode ,sland, where he lived with his wife of 0 years, his daughter, Sharon Molleur, told The Providence -ournal.

Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta immer )ried man, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. , known as 9 - ay, the day -apan surrendered to the United States.

3eople spilled into the New ork City streets to celebrate the news.

Mendonsa planted a kiss on Friedman, whom he had never met.

An iconic photo of the kiss by Alfred Eisenstaedt was first published in Life magazine and is called “9-J Day in

Times Square,” but is known to most as “The .iss.”

It became one of the most famous photographs of the 2 th century.

Another photographer, 9ictor Jorgensen, who was in the Navy, also captured the moment in a similar photo. The moment has been shared widely and is often seen on posters.

Several people later claimed to be the kissing

couple, and it was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.

Mendonsa served on a destroyer during the war and was on leave when the end of the war was announced.

When he was honored at the Rhode Island State ouse in 2 , Mendonsa spoke about the kiss. e said Friedman reminded him of nurses on a hospital ship that he saw

care for wounded sailors.

“I saw what those nurses did that day and now back in Times Square the war ends, a few drinks, so I grabbed the nurse,” Mendonsa said, W3RI-T9 reported .

Friedman said in a 2 interview with the 9eterans istory 3roject that it wasn’t her choice to be kissed.

“The guy just came over and kissed or grabbed,” she told the Library of Congress.

She added, “It was just somebody really celebrating. But it wasn’t a romantic event.”

Mendonsa died two days before his th birthday. The family has not yet made funeral arrangements.

Friedman fled Austria during the war as a -yearold girl. She died in 2 at the age of 2 at a hospital in Richmond, 9irginia, from complications of old age.

Victor Jorgensen/U.S. Navy, File In this Aug. 14, 1945 file photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a sailor and a woman kiss in New York’s Times Square, as people celebrate the end of World War II. The ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. George Mendonsa was 95. This image was taken by U.S. Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen. The photo is of the same moment that photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured and first published in Life magazine.