Evelyn Francis McHale (September 20, 1923 – May 1, 1947)[1] was an American bookkeeper who jumped to her death from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building.
[5] Vincent gained custody of all children and moved to Tuckahoe, New York where McHale attended Eastchester High School as a junior.
After graduating from Normandy High School in 1942, McHale joined the Women's Army Corps and was stationed in Jefferson City, Missouri.
She met her fiancé Barry Rhodes, a Lafayette College student discharged from the United States Army Air Force.
The next day, after leaving Rhodes's residence, she returned to New York City and went to the Empire State Building where she jumped from the 86th-floor observatory, landing on top of a parked car.
Detective Frank Murray found her suicide note in a black pocketbook next to her neatly folded cloth coat over the observation deck wall.
Ben Cosgrove of Time praised the photo as "technically rich, visually compelling and ... downright beautiful", describing her body as "resting, or napping, rather than ... dead" and appearing as if she is "daydreaming of her beau".
Producer, rapper, and songwriter Kanye West may have used this as inspiration for his song "Power" off of his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
On the cover of the 2019 album Better Out Than In by the St. Paul, MN band Skittish, singer and songwriter Jeff Noller poses in a stylized recreation of the infamous picture.