FACT CHECK: No, This Photo Does Not Show Nancy Pelosi As ‘Miss Lube Rack 1959’

Trevor Schakohl | Legal Reporter

A photo shared on Facebook purportedly shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi posing as “Miss Lube Rack 1959.”

Verdict: False

The photo was actually taken in 1951, and the woman in it is not Pelosi.

Fact Check:

The black-and-white photo shows five uniformed workers standing around a woman. A sign in front of the group reads, “Miss Lube Rack.” Text accompanying the photo attempts to suggest that the woman pictured is Pelosi.

However, the photo does not show a young Pelosi. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found the photo on Getty Images’ website where its description revealed the photo was taken in 1951 as part of the LIFE picture collection.

“Muller’s Car Wash employees pose with beauty contest participant, ‘Miss Lube Rack,’ Hollywood, California, 1951,” the original photo’s caption reads. (RELATED: Is Nancy Pelosi’s Chief Of Staff Also The CEO Of Dominion Voting Systems?)

While Check Your Fact was unable to identify the woman in the picture, there is no indication it is Pelosi. She was born in Baltimore in 1940, according to the U.S. Congress Biographical Directory, so she would have only been 10 or 11 years old in 1951. An internet search further found no credible record of Pelosi ever assuming the title “Miss Lube Rack” in a contest in California or elsewhere.

Pelosi didn’t move to California until 1969 when she moved to San Francisco with her husband and five children, Business Insider reported. The Business Insider article includes a photo of Pelosi at age 20, at President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball in 1961, which clearly distinguishes her from the woman in the Facebook photo.

Another photo of Pelosi in 1961 published by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Archives also shows that she bears little resemblance to the woman in the Facebook post.

The claim appears to have been circulating online since at least 2013, according to fact-checking website Snopes.

Trevor Schakohl

Legal Reporter
Follow Trevor on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/tschakohl

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