Lorraine Collett Petersen (December 9, 1892 – March 30, 1983) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 hired to promote a corporate trademark as the "Sun-Maid

Sun-Maid

Sun-Maid Growers of California is a cooperative of raisin growers headquartered in Kingsburg, California. It was founded in 1912 as the California Associated Raisin Company...

 Girl".

Lorraine Collett was born to George Dexter Collett and Martha Elizabeth Falkenstein in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

. In 1915, Collett was attending high school and working part-time as a seeder and packer for the Griffin & Skelley Fruit Packing Company in Fresno, California

Fresno, California

Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...

 for $15 a week. That May she was spotted by Leroy Payne, one of the executives of the raisin

Raisin

Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing...

 cooperative, while drying her curly brown hair and wearing her mother's red bonnet in the backyard of her family's home. She was hired to promote the California Associated Raisin Co. by handing out free samples at the Panama-Pacific Exposition and participating in an unusual promotion that had her dropping raisins from an airplane flying over San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

.
The company later commissioned a watercolor portrait of Collett from San Francisco artist Fanny Scafford to use as the basis for the "Sun Maid" corporate mascot devised by advertising executive E.A. Berg. Her likeness was trademarked and began appearing on raisin packaging in 1916. Use of Collett's image was so successful in promoting its products that by 1920 the company adopted "Sun-Maid Raisin Growers' Association" as its new name. Backed by an aggressive marketing push throughout the 20s, Sun-Maid managed to triple American consumption of raisins by the end of the decade. A revised version of her likeness continued to be featured on all Sun-Maid packaging through 1960. In 1974, Collett was presented with a commemorative plaque by Sun-Maid's president at a ceremony where she presented Scafford's original portrait and the red bonnet to the company in exchange for $1700. Sun-Maid executives donated Collett's bonnet to the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 in 1988 on the occasion of the company's 75th anniversary.

After modeling for Sun-Maid, Collett moved to Hollywood, California

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...

 to try to become an actress. She landed a small part in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916 film)

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1916 drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is based on the novel of the same name. A surviving motion picture at George Eastman House, Rochester.-Cast:* Charlotte Walker - June Tolliver...

before returning to Fresno. There, she ran a restaurant for two years and later converted a former hospital into a nursing home. Collett died on March 30, 1983.