death_date death_place birth_place nationality name birth_date known_for image article_title birth_name occupation
06 february 2006 myrtle beach , south carolina east lumberton , north carolina american jewel flowers evans 22 july 1923 pinup calendar girl thumb jewel flowers
 jewel flowers model
jewel flowers

jewel flowers evans -lrb- 22 july 1923 -- 6 february 2006 -rrb- was an american pin-up model best known for her work with rolf armstrong as a `` calendar girl '' during the 1940s and 1950s .
jewel flowers was born in 1923 , in east lumberton , north carolina , in the part of the town known as a cotton mill village , to calton and leah flowers .
she was the youngest of three children .
she had a sister , evelyn flowers , and a brother , c.f. flowers .
as a teenager she was crowned `` miss lumberton , north carolina '' .
she moved to new york city at 17 after graduating from high school , having been both invited there by a friend from lumberton and sent by her parents to enroll in a business college in manhattan .
in march 1940 , flowers sent a picture of herself to pin-up artist rolf armstrong in response to an advert he had placed in the `` new york times '' .
armstrong , 50 at the time , had been based at the hotel des artistes on west 67th street in manhattan since 1939 , and was looking for new models .
he invited flowers for an interview .
on march 25 , 1940 , flowers started modeling for armstrong .
their professional collaboration and friendship lasted for two decades .
the first painting , titled `` how am i doing ? ''
, reportedly because flowers , unused to modeling , repeatedly asked armstrong `` how am i doing ? ''
during the modeling session , was first published after world war ii had started .
it was brown & bigelow 's best selling calendar for 1942 at a time when the company sold millions of calendars in america , and it became one of armstrong 's most reproduced pictures .
flowers was popular with american servicemen during world war ii , some of whom sent her letters proposing marriage .
armstrong 's calendars and silhouettes of flowers were copied onto bombers and other planes as nose art and painted on tank turrets .
she became so well known during the war , although more as a famous face than by name , that a serviceman 's letter addressed simply as `` jewel flowers , new york city '' was delivered correctly .
for many american servicemen abroad , she represented the `` why we fight '' spirit .
u.s. president franklin d. roosevelt 's government enlisted her to help promote war bonds .
the january 1 , 1945 edition of time magazine included armstrong 's `` toast of the town '' painting of flowers in an article about calendar art .
the article noted that calendars with `` girl paintings '' were `` bought heavily by foundries , machine shops , auto-supply dealers . ''
flowers married frank welch in california in 1946 .
they lived in several places while her husband tried a number of business ventures , including laguna beach , california , greenville , south carolina , reno , nevada , where she reportedly worked in as a card dealer for a time , and new york city .
they had a son together , woody welch .
according to michael wooldridge , coauthor of `` pin up dreams : the glamour art of rolf armstrong '' , armstrong called her a number of times during the period she was following her husband from place to place , to try to persuade her to return to new york and modeling for him .
her modeling career ended with armstrong 's death in 1960 .
he left a large proportion of his personal wealth to flowers .
in total , armstrong created around fifty to sixty works using flowers as the model .
she returned to lumberton as a wealthy woman .
her marriage to frank welch ended in divorce and in 1961 she moved to myrtle beach , south carolina .
she married jon wesley evans there in 1965 , they worked together at his certified public accounting firm , and were successful in real estate investment .
jon evans died in 1995 .
flowers died in 2006 of complications following surgery .
louis k. meisel , coauthor of `` the great american pin-up '' , said she was `` the last of the great models '' drawn by illustrators .
south carolina 's `` the state '' newspaper described her as `` probably the number one pin-up girl of all time '' .
