The Kissing Sailor In Famous World War II Photo Dies At 95

Navy veteran identified as "kissing sailor" in Times Square photo celebrating end of WWII dies at 95. https://t.co/5RILDcopWp pic.twitter.com/I1WtFKvuLR

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 18, 2019

NBC: George Mendonsa, Navy veteran identified as 'kissing sailor' in WWII photo, dies at 95

"He was very proud of his service and the picture and what it stood for," Mendonsa's daughter said Monday.

George Mendonsa, a World War II veteran whose claim of being a sailor kissing a nurse in an iconic image was verified using facial recognition technology, died early Sunday, his daughter said. He was 95.

Mendonsa was living in an assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, and had been suffering from severe congestive heart failure, daughter Sharon Molleur told NBC News. He would have turned 96 on Tuesday, she added.

Mendonsa, a retired fisherman, had maintained for years that he was the sailor locking lips in a picture taken on Aug. 14, 1945, by Alfred Eisenstaedt and published in Life magazine as a scene from "V-J Day in Times Square." On that day, Americans crowded the streets to celebrate the Japanese surrender to the Allies and the end of the war.

The photo has become one of the most enduring images of the 20th century. But when it was published in Life, there was no caption confirming the identities of the pair.

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Update: George Mendonsa, The Kissing Sailor in famous photograph, dies at 95 (The Guardian)

WNU Editor: George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman may be gone, but their picture will live forever.