The Squiers family was the closest neighbors to the Rockwells at the artist’s first Vermont home in the quaint rural town, even though they were a half-mile away. Little Marjorie Squiers became friends with the Rockwell sons and learned to ride her bike in Norman’s studio. Living just down the graveled road, he used her as a model in FREEDOM FROM FEAR, a Saturday Evening Post feature in 1943, an illustration for President Roosevelt’s FOUR FREEDOMS speech during WWII. Her father, a tall, rugged builder renovated the Rockwell home and studio. Walt Squires became the artist’s symbol of masculine strength and would appear in more Vermont paintings than anyone, such as THE FORGING CONTEST, and MUSIC HATH CHARMS, 1940. Walt’s wife Clarice, partially paralyzed from a car accident, became Norman’s symbol of prayer in FREEDOM FROM RELIGION.
