Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995                   TAG: 9508090095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THIS KISS CLEARLY WAS NOT JUST A KISS

For millions of Americans, it was one of the most famous kisses in history - and a tantalizing mystery.

A Life magazine photo taken during street celebrations of the Japanese surrender on Aug. 14, 1945, shows a tall, dark-haired sailor kissing a nurse in New York City's Times Square.

Expressing the unbounded joy and relief that Americans felt at the end of World War II, the sailor holds the nurse in a half dip resembling something from a tango. The nurse, dressed in a white uniform, has one foot lifted lightly off the ground.

The 27-year-old nurse was identified by Life in August 1980 as Edith Shain, now 77 and living in Santa Monica, Calif.

But the sailor's identity was never known. Several men have claimed to be the famous kisser, but all were rejected by Life or Shain.

Now, along comes former New York City police Detective Carl Muscarello, a South Florida retiree who says he was the one - and Shain agrees.

``He described the kiss, how he did it,'' she said. ``He wasn't groping and making it obscene. He was a gentleman. It was thrilling. Then he was gone.''