Marilyn Monroe (7 page)

When Norma Jeane first pulled up outside Aunt Ana’s home, she feared the worst. She had stayed here before, during Grace’s marital problems, and presumed this would be just another in a long line of foster homes and foster-mothers. However, from the moment Norma Jeane entered Ana Lower’s home, her mood shifted and she discovered ‘a wonderful human being’ who changed her whole life and gave her more confidence in herself. Aunt Ana provided Norma Jeane with kindness and love; something she had very rarely experienced in the past, and the child revelled in her devotion.

Ana believed wholeheartedly in Christian Science, and in 1935 had travelled up to San Francisco to nurse her sister, Hattie, while she was fighting a losing battle with cancer. A caring soul, Ana passed what she could on to Norma Jeane, and also took her to Christian Science services. As Gladys Baker had practised the religion too, it wasn’t totally unfamiliar to Norma Jeane, but she didn’t find the religion totally helpful. ‘I’ve read Mrs Eddy [founder of Christian Science and author of
Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures]
and tried to put some of her ideas into my life, but it doesn’t work for me,’ Marilyn was later to say.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as she arrived on Ana’s doorstep, she also entered puberty, which brought yet more heartache for the young girl. Her periods were so painful that she would often lie on the floor, sobbing in agony. Aunt Ana, who was well over ‘the curse’, did her best to help Norma Jeane, but to no avail. Being a Christian Scientist, tablets were not an option, so Ana turned to her beliefs in order to bring comfort to the youngster: ‘Aunt Ana used to pray with me, but it seems I had such a strong belief in pain that she couldn’t overcome it,’ Marilyn later recalled. And thus began a lifetime of painful periods and endometriosis, which ruled Marilyn’s life until the day she died.

Menstruation aside, Norma Jeane’s life with Ana was fairly settled and calm; she worshipped the middle-aged lady who in
turn gave her the love and protection she had so often sought. But once again, schooling presented the child with problems, namely the fact that she stuttered quite badly, and only had a very limited wardrobe, of which the children loved to make fun. Attending the seventh grade at Sawtelle School, Norma Jeane made hardly any friends and felt alienated much of the time: ‘In school I was very quiet. I was never the life of the party. Everyone talked so glibly; they all knew the latest slang and the smartest stories, and I’d stand around like an idiot – never knowing what to say.’ Adding to her feelings of alienation was the fact that she was tall and skinny, making her a talking point with other students. She was cruelly nicknamed ‘Norma Jeane, Human Bean’ and was labelled as being dumb with no personality. She was extremely hurt when one boy in her class told her, ‘I hope some day your legs fill out.’ But at least Ana provided a sympathetic ear when she arrived home at night, which is something she had rarely experienced in the past.

In early 1939, Norma Jeane received a letter from Grace, telling her that she had a half-sister called Berniece. Grace had, of course, known about the existence of both Berniece and her late brother Robert for many years, but had not felt that it was her place to tell Norma Jeane. Finally, Grace had received a letter from Berniece to inform her that Gladys had been in touch from Agnew State Hospital, where she was residing at the time. Gladys had told her all about her half-sister Norma Jeane, and begged her eldest daughter to remove her from the institution. Spurred on by this, Berniece (who previously had no idea she had a half-sister and had believed her mother had probably died) contacted Grace, who in turn passed the letter on to Norma Jeane.

The child, who had searched for family stability her whole life, was thrilled to discover she had a sister and wanted to know all about her. Berniece had been married on 7 October 1938 to Paris Miracle, and having settled into married life in Pineville, Kentucky, was now pregnant with her first child. Grace immediately wrote a long letter to Berniece, passing on news of Norma
Jeane, and revealing that it had always been Gladys’ wish to have her children with her. Norma Jeane then wrote herself, enclosing a photograph and thus beginning an important relationship, which would last until her death some twenty-three years later.

Meanwhile, on hearing of Berniece’s existence, Grace’s mind went into overtime, and she wondered whether Norma Jeane could possibly move in with her new sister. However, there were two problems with this plan: firstly, Gladys had always vetoed any idea of Norma Jeane leaving the state of California, and secondly, Berniece had neither money nor room to accommodate another child. Later Grace saw this for herself when she made a pitstop in Pineville during a trip to West Virginia.

A year after she arrived at Ana’s house, Norma Jeane changed schools once again, and although she flunked arithmetic, she did do well in English and literature, once writing a paper on Abraham Lincoln, which was judged the best in the class. This seemingly small achievement was a great boost for Norma Jeane’s confidence and suddenly the child didn’t feel so dumb any more. Added to that, her once skinny body had begun to fill out, which attracted the attentions of some of her fellow students: ‘The boys didn’t have cars, they had bikes. They’d come by the house and whistle or they’d honk their little horns. Some had paper routes and I’d always get a free paper.’

While Norma Jeane did enjoy most of the attention, some was certainly unwanted and unnecessary. On the way home from school one day, she noticed an older boy standing on the corner, who started shouting obscene remarks as she passed. Hoping it would be a one-off occurrence she ignored him and made her way home. Unfortunately, the next day he was there again, and before long he was harassing Norma Jeane to such an extent that she told an older friend that she found the whole thing intimidating and rather scary. The problem was eventually solved with the help of a friendly storekeeper and a local policeman. ‘The fellow was let go with a stern warning,’ recalled her future sister-in-law Elyda Nelson, ‘and after that Norma Jeane went her way with no one molesting her in the neighbourhood.’

Soon boys were walking her home from school, and they would often stand and talk outside Aunt Ana’s home. Other kids would come along, and soon there would be a large crowd gathered on the pavement, eventually to be ushered into the house by Aunt Ana, joking that they were ‘starting to resemble a mob’.

The new attention spurred Norma Jeane on to have her first – albeit inappropriate – crush on a twenty-two-year-old man who lived across the street, who would often say hello and pat her on the head. One day, while Norma Jeane was outside Aunt Ana’s home, the man came past on his way to the movies. Asking if she’d like to go with him, Norma Jeane couldn’t believe her luck and after gaining permission from Aunt Ana, hopped into the car for what she thought would be a romantic date. She immediately tried (and failed) to act in a sophisticated manner, later commenting, ‘I was gawky, I was giggly, I was stupid,’ and after laughing at his driving technique, opening her own door and falling over herself on the way into the theatre, the young man drove her home, in no mood to ask her out again. (It is generally believed that this man was actually soon-to-be actor Howard Keel, who she went on to date for a short time in the late 1940s.)

Norma Jeane’s confidence took a severe downturn after the failure of her first crush, and wasn’t made any better when some of the girls at school made a point of commenting on the fact that her clothes weren’t as pretty and up-to-date as theirs. One day she returned home in tears because of a cruel comment from one of the other girls, and Aunt Ana sat her down to console and inspire her: ‘It doesn’t matter if other children make fun of your clothes or where you live,’ she said. ‘It’s what you are that counts. You just keep being your own self, that’s all that matters.’

Aunt Ana’s inspirational talks – which mainly consisted of telling the child not to worry about what others thought of her, to take things as they come and to work hard at the things she wanted to accomplish – slowly but surely helped to inspire confidence in Norma Jeane. Before long, she was wearing make-up to school, which helped give her the confidence to say yes when
schoolmates asked her on dates. ‘And that way I sort of slid painlessly into going out,’ she later said.

Norma Jeane became very fond of the actress Ginger Rogers and was given photos of her by a girl who lived across the street. She decided that she wanted to be just like Ginger and, to her amazement, Aunt Ana not only tolerated the notion, but also encouraged her to read lines aloud, while never criticizing her fledgling talent. ‘She was most tolerant of my big ambition of being an actress,’ Marilyn later said.

Unfortunately for Norma Jeane, Aunt Ana was in failing health, but cared too much to allow her to worry, and tried to carry on as best she could. ‘She was a gentle woman in her sixties, very dignified and wise,’ recalled Marilyn. ‘She had heart trouble but she never told me about it.’ Instead, Ana continued her inspirational talks, but began adding theories on how loneliness wasn’t the worst thing in the world, and urging Norma Jeane to always be herself and stand on her own two feet. ‘I didn’t realize that she was preparing me for her death,’ Marilyn later said.

Eventually it became clear that no matter how willing Aunt Ana’s heart was, her body just wasn’t up to the strains of raising a child, and a new home would have to be found for Norma Jeane. The Bolender family had continued to visit the child, but it was not possible for her to go back to them. Instead, in February 1940, it was determined that Norma Jeane would move in once again with guardian and former foster-mother Grace and her husband Doc Goddard.

By the time Norma Jeane arrived at the Goddard home at 14743 Archwood Street, Doc’s daughter, Bebe had moved in with the family. Bebe had suffered a distinctly unhappy childhood featuring foster homes and a mentally unstable mother, so the two children immediately had much in common.

She settled into Emerson Junior High. Many years later, archivist Roy Turner interviewed several of her classmates, with most looking back on their time with Norma Jeane in a positive
light. There was one comment that kept recurring throughout the interviews, though, and that was the aura of loneliness about her: ‘I did not see her too often in school,’ remembered Marian Losman, ‘but when I did she seemed alone.’ Ron Underwood remembered: ‘She was somewhat shy and withdrawn, and seemingly had few friends,’ while Tom Ishii said, ‘She was alone most of the time.’

There were also memories of her ‘plain clothes’ and the ‘powder blue suit that she wore often’, but this all changed when Norma Jeane very suddenly started to bloom. She began to take a keen interest in her hair and clothes, and was instructed by Grace in the art of make-up and grooming. Together Norma Jeane and Bebe spent many hours designing clothes and hairstyles; some of the designs she sent to her half-sister, Berniece, while others Bebe kept with her for the rest of her life. Her social life was beginning to hot up, too: she joined the Emerson Girls Glee Club, and also became firm friends with Bob Stotts, Betty Duggen and Bill Heison, who were a year older than her at school.

Stotts met Norma Jeane shortly after she began at Emerson Junior High, when the books and papers she was holding were carried off in a gust of wind. The two kids got talking and it wasn’t long before they were hanging out together, going on various excursions, playing Monopoly at the Stotts home, and talking with Bob’s mother, Dorothy Muir.

‘She was a sweet person,’ remembers Bob Stotts, ‘well-liked and very thoughtful. No one ever said anything bad about her; she was a happy child and I never saw her cry or be moody at all. I can remember several occasions when our crowd would come over to my house to dance and have a snack after school. Norma Jeane would help my mother with the dishes before she joined the rest of us to dance. She loved to dance and was very good at it.’

Norma Jeane took it upon herself to teach the boys all the latest dance moves – often to tunes such as ‘Begin the Beguine’ – and would often collapse in a fit of non-offensive giggles when
they got it wrong. In fact giggling was something she did often in their presence, as Stotts’ mother, Dorothy, remembered in 1973: ‘She was never rude, always nice. I would describe her as being quiet and reticent but no matter what you said to her, she would giggle.’

She was also prone to embarrassment: ‘Norma Jeane would stub her toes verbally on more things in two minutes than you could think of in a year, and then she would blush like mad,’ remembered Dorothy. ‘I won’t say that she lived at our house during the years we knew her, but she was there every chance she got.’

On 25 February 1940 Norma Jeane, Betty Duggen and Bill Heison travelled to Green Valley Lake with the Stotts/Muir family, where they were all photographed playing in the snow. The trip was not without incident, however, when on the way home a large rock came hurtling down the mountainside and crashed into the middle of the car’s bonnet. Norma Jeane was sitting in the ‘rumble’ seat at the back of the car at the time, and when told by Dorothy Muir how close they had come to being killed by debris, Norma Jeane laughed. ‘My head’s too hard,’ she said. ‘That old rock would have bounced right off and wouldn’t have left a dent.’

As winter turned to spring, more outings were held, this time out to the desert to see the wild flowers. Dorothy Muir remembered Norma Jeane picking a huge bouquet and holding on to it ‘as she might have held an infant’. ‘I never saw anything so lovely,’ Norma Jeane told Dorothy. Her love of flowers is confirmed by later boyfriend Bill Pursel who remembered she loved watching them blow in the wind, and always commented on how ‘free’ they looked.

Now that she was settling into her new life, Grace promised Norma Jeane that she would never again have to worry about stability; that there would always be a home for her with the Goddard family. Grace would listen intently as Norma Jeane told her foster-mother anything that was on her mind, and as her trust grew, the teenager became close to the entire family.
She enjoyed many family get-togethers and started spending more time with Grace’s sister and brother-in-law, Enid and Sam Knebelkamp. She was later filmed trying on a new fur coat and posing with other family members outside the Knebelkamp home.