Evelyn McHale

Imagine a lady named Evelyn McHale. She was a bookkeeper, which means she helped keep track of money for a company. Evelyn lived a long time ago, in the year 1923. She was a real person, just like you and me, but her story has a very sad ending that made people think and talk a lot.

Evelyn McHale was in a very, very tall building called the Empire State Building. It's so tall, it's like a giant reaching for the clouds! On a sad day in 1947, Evelyn jumped from the 86th floor. That's super high up, much higher than the tallest slide at the playground. It was a very tragic moment.

A photography student named Robert Wiles was nearby and took a picture of Evelyn after she fell. The photo showed her lying on top of a car that was all squished. This picture was so surprising and, to some, strangely beautiful, that it was shown all around the world. It even made a famous magazine call it 'the most beautiful suicide'.

Even though it was a very sad event, the picture of Evelyn McHale became famous. It made artists, like a very famous one named Andy Warhol, think about it and even create art inspired by it. It shows how sometimes even sad events can make people create new things and remember what happened.