Joanne siegel in the 40s, left, and in a drawing by Joe Shuster. Courtesy of Laura Siegel Larson, left; Joe Shuster, right

Joanne Siegel, wife of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, has died at age 93. As a
teenager Siegel worked as a comic book model, inspiring her future
husband to create intpreid reporter and Clark Kent love interest Lois
Lane.

The New York Times describes the pair’s first meeting in 1935:

“By that point the character was well along in Siegel’s mind; he knew he wanted her to be a journalist, and his model was a film character, a clever reporter named Torchy Blane who had been featured in a series of B movies, played by Glenda Farrell. (In the 1938 film “Torchy Blane in Panama,” the title character was played by Lola Lane, a singer and actress who some sources — including Ms. Larson — say influenced the name of Superman’s leading lady.)

“In any case, during the modeling session Joanne struck various poses — draping herself over the arms of a chair, for example, to show how she might look being carried by Superman in flight — and she and the two men, who were barely in their 20s, became friends. Shuster’s drawings reproduced her hairstyle and her facial features, though in the most famous of the original drawings, Lois is considerably more voluptuous than her model was.”