The Tragic Story Of Marilyn Monroe's Mother

knife-wielding breakdowns abusive relationships at 16 and kidnappings with a duffel bag Marilyn Monroe's Mother Gladys Pearl Baker had her fair share of Transit while we don't know much about Gladys Pearl Baker's childhood we do know that she was born on May 27 1902 and suffered from near poverty and undiagnosed schizophrenia at age 16 she was married to 24 year old John Newton Baker who turned out

behind in California or moved there at one point she briefly remarried to Martin Edward Mortensen from whom Marilyn Monroe gets her legal last name but Gladys claimed that Monroe's father was actually a co-worker at Consolidated Studios named Charles Stanley Gifford Gladys and Mortensen separated after less than a year and Norma Jean eternity remained unclear her entire life her early years were spent in a stable very

religious home in Hawthorne California with her foster parents Ida and Wayne bollander meanwhile her mother barely made ends meets as a film cutter at RKO radio Studios in Hollywood Gladys bro Baker wanted to play an active role in her daughter's life but visits to the bollander household and sleepovers at her apartment quickly turned dangerous on one occasion she showed up when Norma Jean was three and

stuffed her in a duffel bag though Ida Bollinger managed to stop her over the years Gladys continued to request the bollander's return her daughter to her but they refused and Gladys tried to get herself together by the time Norma Jean was seven in 1933 her mother had gotten a loan for a house and taken in actors George and Maude Atkinson to help cover costs alas this

brief upturn in Fortune came to an end later that year Gladys received news that her son Jackie had died almost the same time she learned that her grandfather hanged himself and her entire Studio was going on strike then in 1934 she suffered a nervous breakdown reports described her wielding a knife in Pub licking claiming that someone was trying to kill her she was uninstitutionalized at a

state hospital in Norwalk California to learn that she was my mother I was quite Jack it was with the red hair this is where things get truly horrific for both mother and daughter Norma Jean's foster care passed a gladys's friend Grace McKee around this time the Future movie star's aspirations started to take off McKee was a busy lady though and she asked the judge to Grant

Norma Jean half orphan status which allowed her to live intermittently with other caregivers while Norma Jean passed between 10 homes and one orphanage from 1935 to 1942 her mother passed between hospitals and they saw each other only sporadically in 1942 a 16 year old Norma Jean married a police officer named James Doherty but that marriage ended in 1946 the same year that Gladys was released from

San Jose's agnews state hospital she said that she was going to move to Oregon to live with her aunts but instead she married John Stewart Ely who already had a wife back in Idaho the mother and daughter were seeing each other a bit at this point and when Norma Jean tried to warn Gladys about her new husband's other marriage Gladys reportedly said that's how much Norma

Jean hates me she'll do anything to ruin my life because she still believes I ruined herbs Gladys also disapproved of her daughter's career choice meanwhile the studio wanted to bury any information about their new star's mother as Marilyn Monroe began to star in movies in the late 40s and early 50s she went along with the story that 20th Century Fox urged her to tell her parents

had died and she was an orphan and she had no idea who they were this led to no less than five women falsely claiming to be her mother Gladys Baker meanwhile was going around saying the same thing but nobody believed her in 1952 a columnist found Gladys working at a nursing home in Eagle Rock outside of Los Angeles the story blew open and Monroe confessed the

truth when this Revelation hit the news Gladys suffered another mental breakdown this time she was institutionalized in rockhaven sanitarium in La Crescenta California the following year Monroe's career exploded thanks to the release of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Gladys then wrote letter after letter to her daughter begging to be released from rockhaven Monroe reportedly visited the sanitarium before her mother was admitted and found it to be highly

disturbing but instead of establishing direct contact she sent her mother a monthly allowance she also left her five thousand dollars a year in her will from a one hundred thousand dollar trust Gladys lived in rockhaven all the way through her daughter's death in 1962. please mother what do you think I should do I think that you should stop coming to see me because you never ask

me how I'm doing the year before Marilyn Monroe's death in 1961 she confessed to having suicidal ideations the Press caught when the story aired on TV and Gladys was found in her room with her left wrist slit a year after her daughter died Gladys climbed out of a window at rockhaven she then climbed a wire mesh fence and walked 15 miles to a church on Foothill

Boulevard she huddled near a water heater for warmth in the church's utility room when the police found her she said she'd run away to practice Christian Science teaching she was then taken back to rockhaven she was eventually released and moved to Florida where she died of heart failure in 1984. there's been speculation that Monroe inherited an unspecified mental illness from her mother though she was never

diagnosed there is indeed a genetic component to mental illness although shared environmental factors between parents and their kids can make it part to pinpoint if you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-talk 8255 [Music]