Funeral set for sailor in V-J Day Times Square kiss photo

By: The Associated Press

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NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) – The sailor photographed kissing a woman in Times Square at the end of World War II will be mourned at a funeral Friday.

George Mendonsa’s funeral will be held at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Burial will follow at St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown.

Mendonsa’s daughter told The Providence Journal that her father died Sunday after he fell and had a seizure at the assisted living facility in Middletown where he had lived with his wife of 70 years. He was 95.

Mendonsa kissed Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945 known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered.

The two had never met.

Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo of the kiss became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.

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