Kara Kovalchik
Where Are They Now? Famous Photos Edition
by Kara Kovalchik - July 1, 2010 - 12:13 PM

The Unsuspecting Nurse

VJ-Day

On June 20, Edith Shain passed away at age 91. Mrs. Shain is widely believed to have been the unsuspecting nurse being kissed in the famous photo snapped by Alfred Eisenstaedt in New York City on V-J Day. The identity of the sailor in the photo is still in dispute, but of all the women who have claimed to be the woman, Eisenstaedt believed that Shain was the most likely candidate.

Shain was working as a nurse at New York’s Doctors Hospital on the afternoon of August 14, 1945, when the news of Japan’s surrender was broadcast on the radio. She joined thousands of other celebrating citizens in Times Square, which is where a man dressed in a Navy uniform grabbed her, planted a smooch on her, and then continued through the crowd bussing every woman within reach. Eisenstaedt snapped four quick frames of the encounter, then lost the pair in the crowd before he could get their names.

Edith Shain moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s, where she taught kindergarten for the next 30 years. She continued to take part in WWII commemorative events and Veteran’s Day activities throughout the rest of her life.

The Officer and the 2-Year-Old


The weather was unusually hot on September 10, 1957, when Washington Daily News photographer Bill Beall was assigned to cover a local parade being held by the Chinese Merchants Association. He watched the celebration with little interested and took a few perfunctory snaps of a large paper dragon dancing down the street with the help of a dozen humans. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two-year-old Allen Weaver step off the curb to get a closer look at the dragon. Something made Beall point his camera that way and he shot a picture just as police officer Maurice Cullinane bent down to caution the tot not to get too close, lest the firecrackers injure him. The Norman Rockwell-like photograph caused a sensation when it appeared on the front page of the Post, and it eventually netted Beall a Pulitzer Prize.

Cullinane worked his way up the ranks and was appointed Washington D.C.’s Chief of Police in 1974. He retired in 1978 and later moved to Florida. As a teen, Allen Weaver worked for a while at Georgia’s Six Flags amusement park before heading west with his family to California.

The Olympic Protesters

Prior to heading to Mexico City for the 1968 Olympic Games, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos met with Harry Edwards, a friend of theirs from San Jose State University. Edwards had formed the Olympic Project for Human Rights and was encouraging all African-American athletes to boycott the Olympics in order to protest the slow pace at which the civil rights movement seemed to be moving.

The boycott didn’t work out, but after Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze in the 200 meter race, the pair sat in an anteroom for an hour before the medal ceremony. Silver medalist Peter Norman from Australia was also present and expressed an interest in the non-violent protest they were discussing. One plan was for the duo to wear black gloves during the National Anthem, but they only had one pair of gloves between them. Norman suggested that they each wear one glove on one hand, which is why the two are raising different fists in the photograph.

However, at the press conference after the medal ceremony, Smith had a more elaborate explanation of all the symbolism in their pose. Smith said he had raised his right fist to represent black power in America, while Carlos raised his left fist to represent black unity. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. He said the black scarf around his neck represented black pride and the black socks with no shoes stood for black poverty in racist America. Peter Norman didn’t raise a fist and kept his shoes on, but he did wear an OPHR button on his track suit.

In the years after the protest, both Smith and Carlos played professional sports for a while and then went on to successful corporate careers in the private sector. Peter Norman received harsh criticism from the press and public when he returned to Australia (simply for wearing the OPHR badge) and 32 years later wasn’t invited to participate in any of the ceremonies surrounding the 2000 Games in Sydney. He died of a heart attack in 2006, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos both served as pallbearers at his funeral.

The POW and His Family

Air Force fighter pilot Lt. Col. Robert Stirm had been shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and spent the next six years being tortured in various North Vietnamese prison camps, including the notorious Hanoi Hilton. He was released in March 1973 as part of a POW exchange. His wife and four children were waiting for him on the tarmac at Travis Air Force Base in California. A phalanx of press photographers were also nearby taking photos of the POWs deplaning as part of “Operation: Homecoming.”

Associated Press photographer Sal Veder saw a teen-aged girl sprinting toward the crowd with her arms spread wide, looking as though she was in flight. It was 15-year-old Lorrie Stirm, who was closely followed by her siblings and her mother. The Veder entitled the prize-winning photo he’d snapped “Burst of Joy.”

But Stirm’s homecoming was bittersweet; three days before arriving in California an Air Force chaplain handed him a letter from his wife. Loretta Stirm had fallen in love with another man during his imprisonment and was divorcing him. Robert Stirm retired from the Air Force as a colonel and worked as a corporate pilot until he retired at age 72. All four of his children are grown and have families of their own, and each one has a framed copy of “Burst of Joy” hanging in their homes. But Col. Stirm has said he still can’t bring himself to display his copy.

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Comments (28)

  1. Totally amazing post.

    posted by Elissa on 7-1-2010 at 12:39 pm

  2. I love these photos. I’ve always been captivated by the emotions shown in Burst of Joy, but thought it was strange that the wife looked so reserved. What a sad story.

    posted by CPete on 7-1-2010 at 12:54 pm

  3. Great post, I like that you picked less well-known photos. I had forgotten about the last three.

    posted by Al on 7-1-2010 at 1:03 pm

  4. I’ve said a lot of bad things about Ms. Stirm in my head over the last 60 seconds…

    It’s a shame that Peter Norman was treated badly for what he did. I never knew that he participated in the protest.

    posted by Nick on 7-1-2010 at 1:15 pm

  5. “Burst of Joy” gives me waves of chills because my own father is in the Air Force. Thanks for posting all the photos!

    posted by Shash on 7-1-2010 at 3:24 pm

  6. soldier homecoming pictures always choke me up… but the “burst of joy” story is just heartbreaking. how awful.

    posted by tiffany on 7-1-2010 at 4:44 pm

  7. Great post – though now knowing the story behind “Burst of Joy” is heartbreaking. And, like Nick above, I too didn’t know that Peter Norman was also a participant in the protest (and shame on the Austrailian powers-that-be that didn’t let him participate in the Sydney ceremonies).

    posted by Steve from San Diego on 7-1-2010 at 5:36 pm

  8. Speaking of photos,

    Did y’all ever pick a few from the Corbis contest? And I thought there was something else we were waiting on results, but I could be wrong!

    posted by Amy on 7-1-2010 at 6:28 pm

  9. I think it’s important to note that both Tommie Smith and John Carlos faced a lot of racism when they returned home because of their actions. Both found it difficult to find jobs at time and had to deal with a lot of hostility.

    posted by C on 7-1-2010 at 7:34 pm

  10. Wow. You’re a POW for six years, and your wife decides to divorce you.

    All I could think was how he must have been thinking what a B*tch she was.

    “I’ve been tortured for the past six years, and you’ve been doing what?”

    She ought to be ashamed.

    posted by Will on 7-1-2010 at 7:34 pm

  11. As an Army wife, I say shame on Mrs. Stirm! How could she be cheating on her husband while he was a POW? That’s horrible. A fine welcome she gave her husband after all he’d been through! What a rotten thing to do.

    I stand by my man, no matter what. He’s been deployed many times and I’m committed to always being here when he comes back. Always.

    posted by a_w on 7-1-2010 at 7:41 pm

  12. Oy! Lay off the woman. She must have spent the better part of six years coming to terms with probably never seeing her husband again, and moved on accordingly. Did he not want her to be happy, whatever the cost? Would you not want that for your loved ones, if you were unable to care for them?

    posted by Lori on 7-1-2010 at 7:56 pm

  13. I am sure the woman felt enough guilt without others judging her! Dang, who knows what kind of info she was, or was not, receiving about her husband at the time.

    posted by Mandy Bobandy on 7-1-2010 at 8:24 pm

  14. Do you feel guilt when others judge you MANDY! You swore to be Mrs. Bobandy forever. Now look at us… hashing it out on a M_F comment post. And to think… I thought we would be the happiest Bobandy’s in the world.

    posted by Randy Bobandy on 7-1-2010 at 11:21 pm

  15. I’m not quite sure if that really happened or not o.o’

    posted by Bakedpotatoes on 7-2-2010 at 2:57 am

  16. More of these please

    posted by Emily on 7-2-2010 at 5:19 am

  17. Had Veder shot his camera a split-second sooner or later, he may not have received the Pulitzer Prize. Another news photographer, standing next to Veder also took the picture, but a split-second before or after Veder shot. The joy of seeing her dad can clearly be seen on Lorrie Stirm’s face. The urgency to reach him and hold him is told by her feet…they are flying!

    posted by Seabat on 7-2-2010 at 6:35 am

  18. Mom and dad will you please stop the fighting, the therapist says these public outbursts will never lead to positive things. You are so embarrassing!

    posted by Andy Bobandy on 7-2-2010 at 9:14 am

  19. One word captured in that picture:
    Daddy.

    posted by helenann on 7-2-2010 at 10:43 am

  20. @Amy – I don’t remember seeing the results of the GeekDad book contest, but since I never got a book I’m assuming I didn’t win.

    This was a great article, by the way!

    posted by Roger on 7-2-2010 at 3:41 pm

  21. That last one is so sad! :-(

    posted by MetFanMac on 7-4-2010 at 3:19 am

  22. LOVE this post!!!

    posted by rose on 7-6-2010 at 3:10 pm

  23. This is also a good one, the kid from the nirvana cover, all grown up.

    http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/05/the_naked_nirvana_baby_is_a_gr.html

    posted by ejourdan on 7-6-2010 at 3:13 pm

  24. I can’t believe you are my family.

    posted by Sandy Bobandy on 8-2-2010 at 10:39 am

  25. As an Aussie, I’m ashamed that Peter Norman was treated in this fashion. Peter Norman was invited to the Sydney Olympic Games as a guest of the US when you discovered our own country had not given him his due. For those that are interested, there is a documentary called Salute. And no, I’m not in anyway affiliated. Just someone who watched it.

    posted by Kitiara on 9-20-2010 at 5:47 pm

  26. Bobandy family, please take this to another forum, like the family counselor’s office (unless this is all fake, then just go away!)

    posted by Jan Moore on 9-21-2010 at 11:22 pm

  27. Dear uh “Mandy/Randy/Andy/Sandy Bobandy”—do you not have anything better to do with your time?

    posted by my2cents on 12-6-2010 at 2:27 pm

  28. Sad home coming, but at least he made it home!
    This photo of Col. Stirm and his family recently appeared in a 141 photo spread from the Denver Post on the war. It is photo #124 in the series.

    With this many photos, the page does take time to load.
    http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/04/30/captured-a-look-back-at-the-vietnam-war-on-the-35th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-saigon/1781/

    posted by Phil on 5-24-2011 at 9:34 pm

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