{"id":36130,"date":"2019-02-22T22:25:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T22:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/02\/22\/fair-winds-and-following-seas-quartermaster-1st-class-george-mendonsa\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:36:22","slug":"fair-winds-and-following-seas-quartermaster-1st-class-george-mendonsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/02\/22\/fair-winds-and-following-seas-quartermaster-1st-class-george-mendonsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair winds and following seas, Quartermaster 1st Class George Mendonsa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWPORT, R.I. \u2014 The sailor photographed kissing a woman in Times Square at the end of World War II was mourned Friday at a funeral in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Mendonsa’s funeral was held at St. Mary’s Church in Newport and he was buried at St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendonsa died Sunday<\/a> after he fell and had a seizure at the assisted living facility in Middletown where he had lived with his wife of 72 years, his daughter told The Providence Journal. He was 95.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two had never met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo of the kiss became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. First published in Life magazine, it’s called “V-J Day in Times Square,” but is known to most as “The Kiss.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rita Mendonsa, center, sits in front of her husband George’s flag-draped casket during funeral services at St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown, R.I., on Friday. (Michael Dwyer\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another photographer, Victor Jorgensen, who was in the Navy, also captured the moment in a similar photo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment has been shared widely and is often seen on posters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several people later claimed to be the kissing couple, and it was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendonsa enlisted in the Navy in 1942, after high school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He served on a destroyer during the war.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendonsa was on leave when the end of the war was announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was honored at the Rhode Island State House in 2015, Mendonsa said Friedman reminded him of nurses on a hospital ship that he saw care for wounded sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\t