Marilyn Monroe

From RoyalWeb
Jump to: navigation, search
(Grace McKee)
 
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Marilyn Monroe''' (1926-1962), born Norma Jean Mortensen
+
'''Marilyn Monroe''' (1926-1962), U.S. actress, born Norma Jean Mortensen
  
Copyright 2007, Will Johnson, [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com], Professional Genealogist, All Rights Reserved. This page is locked, if you'd like to add or correct anything, please email me.
+
<center>
 +
<table style="border-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" border="1" bordercolor="#888888" cellspacing="0" width="287" height="75">
 +
<tr>
 +
<td>
 +
<center>I am a professional genealogist. Contact me, if you'd like help in tracing your family tree, by clicking the below button.</center>
 +
<br>
 +
 +
<center>[http://www.countyhistorian.com/cecilweb/index.php/Rates_and_Hours http://i.keen.com/D1_cb-call-now-136x40_V5.gif]</center>
 +
</td>
 +
</tr>
 +
</table>
 +
</center>
 +
<br>
 +
 
 +
This article should be cited as:<blockquote>"Marilyn Monroe", by Will Johnson, professional genealogist [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com], at CountyHistorian.com URL: http://www.countyhistorian.com/cecilweb/index.php/Marilyn_Monroe, copyright 2007-8, all rights reserved.</blockquote>
 +
 
 +
This page is locked, if you'd like to add or correct anything, please email me.  I am available for hire to assist you to trace your family or create a biography of you or your relative.  I charge $25 per hour.
  
 
This is the '''most''' complete, in-depth, and well-researched site on Marilyn's childhood online.  (If I do say so myself.)
 
This is the '''most''' complete, in-depth, and well-researched site on Marilyn's childhood online.  (If I do say so myself.)
Line 11: Line 27:
 
===Birth===
 
===Birth===
 
Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortensen  in Los Angeles County Hospital, Los Angeles County, [[California]] on Jun 1, 1926 to [[#Gladys Pearl Monroe|Gladys Pearl Monroe]].  Who her father was is not clear.  Gladys had been married to [[#Martin Edward Mortensen|Martin Edward Mortensen]] and that is the father listed on Norma's birth certificate, but Martin and Gladys had been seperated for too much time prior to Norma's birth. So either Gladys was still seeing him, even though seperated, or Marilyn's father was someone else.
 
Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortensen  in Los Angeles County Hospital, Los Angeles County, [[California]] on Jun 1, 1926 to [[#Gladys Pearl Monroe|Gladys Pearl Monroe]].  Who her father was is not clear.  Gladys had been married to [[#Martin Edward Mortensen|Martin Edward Mortensen]] and that is the father listed on Norma's birth certificate, but Martin and Gladys had been seperated for too much time prior to Norma's birth. So either Gladys was still seeing him, even though seperated, or Marilyn's father was someone else.
 
Marilyn, well into the late 40s believed he was her father, and he to his death believed it as well.
 
  
 
===Aside:The Bakers===
 
===Aside:The Bakers===
Line 22: Line 36:
 
Gladys next married to Martin Edward Mortensen (b 1897) on 11 Oct 1924 in Los Angeles, but seperated from him after several months, moving in with her good friend and co-worker Grace Atchison McKee, a divorced woman who was also working at RKO.  It's been reported that Martin was looking for a "good Christian woman" and Gladys was a bit too much of a party animal for him.
 
Gladys next married to Martin Edward Mortensen (b 1897) on 11 Oct 1924 in Los Angeles, but seperated from him after several months, moving in with her good friend and co-worker Grace Atchison McKee, a divorced woman who was also working at RKO.  It's been reported that Martin was looking for a "good Christian woman" and Gladys was a bit too much of a party animal for him.
  
Norma Jean was born 1 Jun 1926, Gladys' divorce from Martin was not completed until 1927, but they were apparently seperated for some time before this, and Gladys was possibly dating other men, as reported by a few biographers.  One theory is that Norma's real father was a married man named Stanley Gifford.  Allegedly, Marilyn's mother told her this, but so far this statement is uncited, and is now suspect as [[Shelley Winters]] relates a story seeming to refute it, that is that Marilyn believe that Mortensen was her father.
+
Norma Jean was born 1 Jun 1926, Gladys' divorce from Martin was not completed until 1927, but they were apparently seperated for some time before this, and Gladys was possibly dating other men, as reported by a few biographers.  One theory is that Norma's real father was a married man named Stanley Gifford.  Allegedly, Marilyn's mother told her this, but so far this statement is uncited.
  
When Norma Jean was a baby, her mother placed her in a child-care situation with Albert and Ida Bolender, apparently because she had a hectic life-style and felt this would be better for the babyShe paid them $25 a month for thisNorma's grandmother Della apparently lived nearby, but died Aug 1927. One biographer claims that Ida Bolender stated that Della "...died in a straitjacket."  The truth might be a little more prosaic.  In the only video interview of which I know, with Ida, she didn't say that. She did say that Della acted crazy one day and broke the window in or by their front door, and that they called the Sheriff about it.
+
[[Shelley Winters]] who was at one time Marilyn's roommate relates this story<blockquote>"Marilyn told us how she had recently gotten a man's name from that orphan asylumHer mother had listed a Mortensen as her biological fatherThe night she had finished ''The Asphalt Jungle'', after the wrap party...she called information in some place like Whittier, got the man's phone number and called it....She was convinced that this man was her biological father, and she explained to the man who she was....A drunken male voice responded, 'Listen you tramp, I have my own family, and I don't want anything to do with Hollywood bums.  Don't you ever call me again.And he hung up.</blockquote>
 
+
It's also confusing that apparently Gladys was living with the Bolenders as they are all reported together, in one house in the 1930 census.  Some biographers has mistakeningly suggested that the Bolenders were a "foster family", but in today's terms we would call this "full-time child care", i.e. the child is being boarded while her mother works or perhaps cats-around but not fostered. "Foster parents" are paid by the state, not by the parents of the child.
+
  
 +
===The Bolenders===
 +
When Norma Jean was a baby, her mother placed her in a child-care situation with Albert and Ida Bolender, apparently because Gladys had a hectic life-style and felt this would be a better situation for the baby.  She paid them $25 a month for this.  Norma's grandmother Della apparently lived nearby, but died Aug 1927.  One biographer claims that Ida Bolender stated that Della "...died in a straitjacket."  The truth might be a little more prosaic.  In the only video interview of which I know, with Ida, she didn't say that.  She did say that Della acted crazy one day and broke the window in or by their front door, and that they called the Sheriff about it.
  
 +
It's also confusing that apparently Gladys was living with the Bolenders as they are all reported together, in one house in the 1930 census.  Some biographers has mistakeningly suggested that the Bolenders were a "foster family", but in today's terms we would call this "full-time child care", i.e. the child is being boarded while her mother works or perhaps cats-around but not fostered.  "Foster parents" are paid by the state, not by the parents of the child.  And certainly not while she is living with them.
  
 
===Grace McKee===
 
===Grace McKee===
Line 35: Line 50:
 
Evidently shortly after Grace married her last husband Ervin Silliman Goddard (1904-72), she sent Norma to the Los Angeles Orphans' Home from September 1935 to June 1937. Whatever caused this displacement must have later been corrected, as Grace took Norma back out of the orphanage at the end of this time.
 
Evidently shortly after Grace married her last husband Ervin Silliman Goddard (1904-72), she sent Norma to the Los Angeles Orphans' Home from September 1935 to June 1937. Whatever caused this displacement must have later been corrected, as Grace took Norma back out of the orphanage at the end of this time.
  
Much later, at the time that [[Shelley Winters]] and Marilyn were roommates, the were just coming out of the Circle Theatre and Marilyn was staring at a building across the street. She whispered, "That's the orphan asylum I lived in most of my life.  That's where my foster parents would ship me back to when they decided they didn't want my anymore."
+
Much later, at the time that [[Shelley Winters]] and Marilyn were roommates, the were just coming out of the Circle Theatre and Marilyn was staring at a building across the street. She whispered, "That's the orphan asylum I lived in most of my life.  That's where my foster parents would ship me back to when they decided they didn't want me anymore."
  
 
===Aside:The Goddard's===
 
===Aside:The Goddard's===
Line 92: Line 107:
 
*[http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=3593190 "Ervin Silliman Goddard"] on OneWorldTree
 
*[http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=3593190 "Ervin Silliman Goddard"] on OneWorldTree
 
*[http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kopf&id=I12688 "Clara Grace Atchinson"] in the Ancestry World Tree
 
*[http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kopf&id=I12688 "Clara Grace Atchinson"] in the Ancestry World Tree
 +
 +
===See Also===
 +
*[[100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century]]
  
 
==Martin Edward Mortensen==
 
==Martin Edward Mortensen==
Martin was born Feb 26, 1897 in Vallejo, Solano County, California, the son of Martin Mortenson a Norwegian immigrant and his wife Stella Catherine "Katie" Higgins.
+
Martin was born 26 Feb 1897 in Vallejo, Solano County, California, the son of Martin Mortenson a Norwegian immigrant and his wife Stella Catherine "Katie" Higgins.
  
Martin worked for LA Gas and Electric Company.  He married Gladys Pearl Monroe 11 Oct 1924, she left him six months later, but they were not officially divorced until 1 Jun 1927.  Mona Miracle (see [http://www.monaraemiracle.com/work1.htm her website]) reports that on the marriage certificate Martin lists his occupation as "meterman" and his status as "divorced".
+
By 1917, Martin was a gas fitter working for LA Gas and Electric Company.  He married Gladys Pearl Monroe on 11 Oct 1924, she left him six months later, but they were not officially divorced until 1 Jun 1927.  Mona Miracle (see [http://www.monaraemiracle.com/work1.htm her website]) reports that on the marriage certificate Martin lists his occupation as "meterman" and his status as "divorced", so Gladys must have been his second wife.
  
When Gladys became pregnant, she had supposedly been dating various men and so there is some uncertainty about exactly who Marilyn's father was.  On her birth certificate, Gladys named "Martin Mortensen" as the father.  It's possible she did this only so it wouldn't appear that she was sleeping around.  Some biographers claim that a Stanley Gifford was Marilyn's father.  But it's also possible that Gladys really did continue to have sex with Martin and that he really is Marilyn's father.  If so, Marilyn would be similar to [[Jodie Foster]] in this regard.  Jodie's parents were also seperated, but she was also conceived by her legal father.
+
When Gladys became pregnant, she had supposedly been dating various men and so there is some uncertainty about exactly who Marilyn's father was.  On her birth certificate, Gladys named "Martin Mortensen" as the father.  It's possible she did this only so it wouldn't appear that she was sleeping around.  Some biographers claim that a Stanley Gifford was Marilyn's father.  But it's also possible that Gladys really did continue to have sex with Martin and that he really is Marilyn's father.  If so, Marilyn would be similar to [[Jodie Foster]] in this regard.  Jodie's parents were also seperated for some time, but she was also conceived by her legal father.
  
Martin died Feb 10, 1981 in Riverside County, California.  One news report of this appears in the New York Times.
+
Martin died 10 Feb 1981 in Riverside County, California.  One news report of this appears in the New York Times.
  
 
===Primary sources for 2===
 
===Primary sources for 2===
Line 223: Line 241:
  
 
[[Category:Ancestry research]]
 
[[Category:Ancestry research]]
 +
[[Category:Brentwood, California]]
 
[[Category:Famous Women]]
 
[[Category:Famous Women]]
 
[[Category:California]]
 
[[Category:California]]
 
[[Category:Missouri]]
 
[[Category:Missouri]]
 
[[Category:Movies and Television]]
 
[[Category:Movies and Television]]

Latest revision as of 17:46, 24 January 2010

Personal tools
MOOCOW
Google AdSense