My journey ends here...


  •          HOME PAGE
  • BIOGRAPHY
  • FILES
  • BOOKS
  • LINKS
  • COMMENTS
  • S

1926

 

JUNE

Norma Jeane Mortenson  was born on Tuesday, June 1, at the Los Angeles General Hospital:

.

It was doctor  Herman M.Beerman who gave birth to her.

On her birth certificate ( , ; ), she was identified as the daughter

of Gladys Monroe (divorced from her first husband, Jasper Baker (  ), she had taken again her maiden name), living at  5454 Wilshire Boulevard, Hollywood, and of Edward Mortenson, baker, with an unknown residence.

 

According to the versions, there would be other potential fathers, colleagues of Gladys at the Consolidated Film Industries 

(  ), where she worked as a negatives cutter for the movie industry.

But the most commonly admitted supposition is that  the most  likely father of Norma Jeane, would have been Stanley Gifford, supervisor at the Consolidated Film Industries. This one, having divorced his wife in 1925, was known for adding up the extramarital affairs.

 Gladys never talked about  Gifford, neither in private, nor in public, and didn't ask him for any support, whether it was financial or  affective, during the birth of little Norma Jeane. Gifford,  as for him, despite the fact that  he was the rumored father, didn't  contributed to Gladys stay at the hospital and never recognized Norma Jeane as his daughter.

It was Gladys colleagues who organized a  fundraising to help her to pay her stay at the hospital; they collected the sum of 140$.

Gladys, separated from her husband  Edward Mortenson but not yet divorced, maybe didn't even know herself the identity of her daughter's father.
 

In the divorce request with Gladys he made in 1928, Martin Mortenson wasn't recognized as being the father of Gladys's child.

She belonged to what was called at this time the"good time girls", women with  morals know as loose.

Gladys didn't know anybody who could look after Norma Jeane and because she didn't earn enough money, she couldn't give up her job at the Consolidated Film.

Her life didn't  agree with baby demands and Gladys was completely terrified by the responsability she had to lie with about the education of her child.

Disappointed by her life,  her own mother's life, separated from her first children, Berniece (born in 1919) and Robert (born in 1917), taken away by their father Jasper Baker in 1923, Gladys found she was unable of real maternal affection.

So it became obvious that she had to place her daughter in care of a strong and loving family. 

It was Della Mae Monroe, Gladys mother, back from her exotic adventures (she had followed her husband Charles Grainger  who was on a business trip in Borneo) who,  2 weeks after Norma Jeane's birth, encouraged Gladys to place her grand-daughter in care in a serious and devoted family, the Bolenders.

Della Monroe was the neighbor of the Bolenders, who lived  459 East Rhode Island in Hawthorn, a working class suburb of Los Angeles.

Week of June 13 to 19

Gladys placed Norma Jeane in care of  Albert and Ida Bolender ( ,, 

 ). As many families of this era, the Bolenders supplemented their income by taking care of children. For this responsability, they received the sum of 25$ a month, either from the natural parents, or from the State of California.

The Bolenders had a son, Lester, aged 2 months  more than Norma Jeane, they had offically adopted.

They were quite poor : Albert was a mailman and Ida dealt with the education of her son and the children she was in charge of, with the house working and her Protestant  parish.

Actually, they were members of the Unified Pentecostal Church to which alos belonged Della Monroe.

Gladys often visited her daughter at week-ends and took care of her  .

Norma Jeane lived for 7 years with the Bolenders, in the four-rooms of their humble bungalow.

 

DECEMBER

On Monday, December 6, Ida Bolender and Della Monroe () made Norma Jeane baptized at the

temple of Sister Aimee Semple MacPherson ( ), a Pentecostal Minister, at the  Four Square Gospel Church, located

4503 West Broadway in Hawthorn :.


 

                                                                                                                                              BACK TO ALPHABETICAL INDEX                                                                                                                                                                  NEXT FILE

K&K- 04/2006 - Contact