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Sailor from iconic Life photo visits League City
By Christopher Smith Gonzalez
The Daily News
Published February 14, 2012
LEAGUE CITY — It’s become on iconic picture. A Navy sailor all in blue locked in a passionate kiss with a nurse dressed in white in New York’s Times Square.
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s picture of the kiss, shot on V-J Day Aug. 14, 1945, has become a symbol for many things — victory, jubilation and, of course, love.
Glenn McDuffie is one of more than 10 men who claim to be the sailor in that picture, but he is the only one with the backing of Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson. McDuffie said he also has taken and passed a polygraph test to prove his identity.
He is 84 now and lives in Arlington with his daughter but McDuffie was in League City this weekend at the American Legion Post 554 for a Valentine’s Day dance. The American Legion Riders, a motorcycle group that raises money for scholarships, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and helps the Wounded Warrior Project, invited McDuffie down to the dance.
“People are so excited,” said Sara Lacey, the Post’s auxiliary president.
Two actors, Dave Pavini and Summer Haywood, recreated the scene for the dance, Lacey said. But the man everyone wanted to meet and take pictures with was McDuffie.
McDuffie takes time to go to events like the one at the American Legion Post in League City. He has been everywhere from hangar dances in San Marcos to the Pentagon in Washington D.C., said Rene Armstrong, a local author who helps McDuffie book his trips.
People often ask him what the story is behind the kiss is. It wasn’t romantic love that inspired the moment, McDuffie said. He joined the Navy when he was only 15. He had two brothers in the Navy and one in the Air Force, McDuffie said.
On the day of the picture, McDuffie was in New York on leave and was on his way to visit a girlfriend in the city. He was walking out of the subway when a woman told him the war was over, McDuffie said.
As he came out into the sunlight in Times Square, McDuffie said he was thinking of only one thing — his brother who was a prisoner of war in Japan.
“I ran out into the street jumping and hollering thinking that if he was alive he could home,” McDuffie said.
The nurse had her back to him at first, he said.
“When she heard me, she turned around and held out her arms and the rest is history,” McDuffie said.
McDuffie said he remembers the photographer rushing up to take their picture. But Mcduffie said he shipped out not long after that day and he wouldn’t get to see the picture until after it had been published in Life magazine.
His brother came home but McDuffie, who was a gunner’s mate, said he did not leave the Navy until the following year.
It was a good kiss, McDuffie said, thinking about the moment he shared with the nurse in 1954. He definitely would kiss her again if he had the chance, he said.
“She had the biggest mouth of any woman I ever kissed,” McDuffie said. “That’s something I’ve never forgot.”
By Christopher Smith Gonzalez
The Daily News
Published February 14, 2012
LEAGUE CITY — It’s become on iconic picture. A Navy sailor all in blue locked in a passionate kiss with a nurse dressed in white in New York’s Times Square.
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s picture of the kiss, shot on V-J Day Aug. 14, 1945, has become a symbol for many things — victory, jubilation and, of course, love.
Glenn McDuffie is one of more than 10 men who claim to be the sailor in that picture, but he is the only one with the backing of Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson. McDuffie said he also has taken and passed a polygraph test to prove his identity.
He is 84 now and lives in Arlington with his daughter but McDuffie was in League City this weekend at the American Legion Post 554 for a Valentine’s Day dance. The American Legion Riders, a motorcycle group that raises money for scholarships, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and helps the Wounded Warrior Project, invited McDuffie down to the dance.
“People are so excited,” said Sara Lacey, the Post’s auxiliary president.
Two actors, Dave Pavini and Summer Haywood, recreated the scene for the dance, Lacey said. But the man everyone wanted to meet and take pictures with was McDuffie.
McDuffie takes time to go to events like the one at the American Legion Post in League City. He has been everywhere from hangar dances in San Marcos to the Pentagon in Washington D.C., said Rene Armstrong, a local author who helps McDuffie book his trips.
People often ask him what the story is behind the kiss is. It wasn’t romantic love that inspired the moment, McDuffie said. He joined the Navy when he was only 15. He had two brothers in the Navy and one in the Air Force, McDuffie said.
On the day of the picture, McDuffie was in New York on leave and was on his way to visit a girlfriend in the city. He was walking out of the subway when a woman told him the war was over, McDuffie said.
As he came out into the sunlight in Times Square, McDuffie said he was thinking of only one thing — his brother who was a prisoner of war in Japan.
“I ran out into the street jumping and hollering thinking that if he was alive he could home,” McDuffie said.
The nurse had her back to him at first, he said.
“When she heard me, she turned around and held out her arms and the rest is history,” McDuffie said.
McDuffie said he remembers the photographer rushing up to take their picture. But Mcduffie said he shipped out not long after that day and he wouldn’t get to see the picture until after it had been published in Life magazine.
His brother came home but McDuffie, who was a gunner’s mate, said he did not leave the Navy until the following year.
It was a good kiss, McDuffie said, thinking about the moment he shared with the nurse in 1954. He definitely would kiss her again if he had the chance, he said.
“She had the biggest mouth of any woman I ever kissed,” McDuffie said. “That’s something I’ve never forgot.”
