Question: Who was Rosie the Riveter modeled after? A friend is certain it was his grandmother who lived in Fresno.

-- Shelly Sanders, Fresno

Answer: Geraldine Hoff Doyle of Michigan was the inspiration for the iconic "We Can Do It" World War II poster of a female factory worker later called Rosie the Riveter.

Doyle was 17 when a United Press photographer took her picture in 1942 as she operated a metal-stamping machine at the American Broach & Machine Co. in Ann Arbor, Mich. She was one of millions of women who took factory jobs to replace the men who went to war.

The original photo shows Doyle in a factory uniform with her hair tied up in a printed bandana.

Doyle's daughter, Stephanie Gregg, told the Los Angeles Times that her mother -- who died in December at age 86 -- played the cello and that she quit the factory job after a couple of weeks after hearing that another woman had injured her hand operating the same machine.

Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller used the news wire photo of Doyle as inspiration for one of his posters for the Westinghouse company in 1942 to help recruit female workers.

Doyle's face is her only likeness in Miller's poster, which shows a woman in blue coveralls wearing a red-and-white bandana and flexing a bicep under the motto, "We Can Do It!" Gregg has said her mother was not as muscular as the woman Miller drew.

The poster was displayed at one Westinghouse plant for only a couple of weeks. The woman in the poster was later dubbed Rosie the Riveter, from a war-time song of the same name.

Famed artist Norman Rockwell painted a beefier version of Rosie the Riveter for a 1943 Saturday Evening Post cover.

After Doyle left the factory, she got a job in a bookstore in Ann Arbor, where she met her husband, Leo Doyle. They were married in 1943. He was a dentist and she worked in his office until she was 75. The couple had six children.

Rosie the Riveter's image became a symbol of the women's rights movement in the 1970s and '80s. Doyle was unaware of the part she played in the iconic poster until the mid-'80s, when she saw her picture and the poster in Modern Maturity magazine.

Q: Is there any connection between Fresno pioneer John Fancher, for whom Fancher Creek was named, and the Fancher family killed in the Mountain Meadow, Utah, massacre in 1857?

-- Roland Brady, Fresnocq-verified

A: John Fancher's younger brother, Alexander, was involved. Alexander Fancher, his wife, eight of his children and three other relatives were among the victims of the Mountain Meadow massacre in Utah in September 1857.

Alexander Fancher, an Arkansas cattle rancher, traveled to California twice in the early 1850s. In April 1857, he led the Fancher wagon train from Arkansas, meeting up with the Baker wagon train of Arkansas families near Salt Lake.

The Baker-Fancher wagon train was wealthier than other settlers who came west. Fancher reportedly traveled with four large wagons, plus a couple of carriages for the women. In addition to oxen, mules and horses, Fancher was driving about 200 cattle to deliver to John Fancher's ranch in Tulare.

From Salt Lake, the Baker-Fancher wagon train traveled south to Mountain Meadow, where they decided to camp for a few days.

Militiamen who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attacked the wagon train, perhaps to steal the livestock and possessions. The militiamen, who had convinced Paiute Indians to join the attack, disguised themselves as Indians.

The Baker-Fancher party circled the wagons to create a fortress. The militiamen and Indians laid siege to the settlers for five days. Alexander Fancher, 45, is believed to have been killed during the attack.

During the battle, the militiamen thought the settlers had seen that they weren't Indians. On Sept. 11, 1857, the militiamen approached the settlers with a white flag, saying they had worked out a truce with the Paiutes.

But after marching the male settlers away from the camp, the militiamen opened fire, killing every man.

Returning to the wagon train, the militiamen then killed the women and older children.

In all, 120 men, women and children died, including Alexander's wife, Elizabeth, 32, their children -- Hampton, 19; William, 17; Mary, 15; Thomas, 14; Martha, 10; and twins Sarah and Margaret, about 7 -- and Alexander's cousin, Robert Fancher, 19. Alexander's son from a previous marriage, James Mathew Fancher, 25, and his wife, Frances Fulfer Fancher, also died.

The militiamen spared 17 children who were thought to be too young to tell about the massacre, including Christopher Fancher, about 4, and his sister, Tryphena, about 2.

Prosecution of the militiamen was delayed, in part, by the Civil War. Several of the men were indicted in the killings, but only one, John D. Lee, was convicted. He was executed at Mountain Meadow by a firing squad in 1877.

Send questions to Paula Lloyd, The Fresno Bee, Fresno, CA 93786; fax to (559) 441-6436. The columnist can be reached at plloyd@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6756. Please include a phone number.