The Kissing Sailor Photograph

Imagine one day that you are taking a break from work and on your break you hear very exciting news: the war has ended! Then imagine being mistaken for a nurse and kissed by a random sailor in Times Square. After, imagine someone had snapped a picture of your kiss with the stranger and your picture being shared around the world. Finally, imagine people trying to find you and becoming known as “The Woman in the Photo.” This is the story of Greta Friedman, a woman who lived in Frederick, known famously as the woman in the Kissing Sailor Photograph.
Greta Friedman, was taking a break from her job as a dental assistant, when she was randomly kissed by a joyful sailor, George Mendonsa, in Times Square. George Mendonsa, Friedman’s kissing companion, was in the Pacific when he had witnessed the grotesqueness of the World War II. After witnessing the horrors of war, he gained respect for the nurses who cared for the wounded soldiers. Therefore, when he was walking through Time Square with his girlfriend, after the announcement that World War II ended, he out of gratitude, kissed a woman who he assumed was a nurse. During the blank time period, a dental assistant’s uniform strongly resembled the uniform of a nurse’s, so Mendonsa’s
Greta Friedman became a resident of Frederick in the 1960’s and resided in a house across from what is today Hood College. During her stay in Frederick, she was a child’s advocate and wrote frequently to the editor of the Frederick News Post. George Mendonsa married his girlfriend, Rita, the same girlfriend who respectfully witnessed George kiss Greta. Despite their lack of relationship, they are still bonded by the picture, for is still being passed around the world, as representation of America’s joy of World War II’s