1941
At the end of the scolar year at Emerson High School
(-
,
,
), in June,
Norma Jeane's grades in Spanish, sciences and physical education
weren't great; she almost failed in rhetoric and diction, paralysed by
the fear to express herself in public and socially hung-up.
On June 27, 1941, she graduated 9th Grade .
SEPTEMBER
She attended the Van Nuys High School (,
) (10th grade)
(until February 1942), closer to the Goddard's home than the West Los Angeles University.
It seemed that she didn't impress enough the members of the theater club of her school to get a part in a play.
Her grades weren't much better that the Emerson's ones. She didn't
manage to focus on abstract subjects, because her attention was
mobilized by a tall young man, dark-haired, blue-eyed, who proudly wore
a thin moustache.
His name was James Dougherty () and his family lived in a house facing the Goddards bungalow (14747 Archwood Street).
At
Van Nuys High, he played in plays, shone in the football team () and had been for a while, delegate of the students.
Thanks to his abilities in football, he had obtained a scholarship for the University; he refused it to work and provide for his family, mother and brothers and sisters.
He was employed in the night shift of the Lockheed Aircraft (bombers construction)
in Burbank and drove a blue sparkling touring coupé Ford.
He had had several girlfriends, but was more seriously attracted by one of them, Doris Drennan, the "Beauty Queen of Santa
OCTOBER
The Goddards moved in Odessa Avenue, in another small house owned by Ana Lower,
much more far from the university. As Jim lived closer to the
university than the Goddards, and was available during the day, her
mother Ethel, friend of Grace McKee-Goddard
(and so former neighbor), often asked him to take Norma Jeane and Bebe Goddard back to school.
Norma Jeane should think that Jim, with his moustache, looked like Gladys mysterious fiancé (Stanley Gifford
() of who she had hung the portrait when they lived together at Arbol Street in 1933), to Clark Gable or Errol Flynn; without any doubt, the
moustache made him look more older and more distinguished.
If he agreed to be admired as a driver, it was no question for him to become Norma Jeane's boyfriend.
Neither
Jim, nor his mother Ethel, and not more Norma Jeane were fully aware
of Grace McKee- Goddard's plan. This one didn't take a long time
getting moving.
DECEMBER
Few
days after the Pearl Harbor shock and the sudden start of the USA
in the war, Grace asked Ethel Dougherty if Jim could accompany Norma
Jeane to the Christmas ball of the Adel Precision Products, where Doc Goddard worked.
Jim partly agreed because the admiration Norma Jeane devoted to him flattered him and partly because his love affair with Doris Drennan hadn't survived. Grace neverthemess asked him to find a partner to Bebe who also attended the party.
The Christmas ball maked a decisive step in their relationship. Grace, impatient to see Norma Jeane becoming a woman, encouraged their dates.
She suggested them to go for a walk in the Hollywood hills or to sail on Pop’s Willow Lake. Sometimes, they drove to Ventura County, in the north, visiting Jim's sister, Billie, and went on further to Sherwood Lake. Grace prepared them a picnic, and Jim spent wonderful week-ends with the delicious and not much demanding Norma Jeane.
At night, the couple often parked on Mulholland Drive, the mountains crest road of Santa Monica. They talked about the war, the university, and Norma Jeane confided him, very openly, that she was an illegitimate child.
They
listened to the radio the hits of the season :"Don’t Sit Under
the Apple Tree", "That Old Black Magic", "Moonlight Becomes You",
and Sinatra who whispered "I’ll Never Love Again" and "Night and
Day".
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