#Was gladys baker morris dna approved series#

Within weeks, Baker also discovered that her grandfather had hanged himself and that her studio was going on strike.īaker finally caved to the pressure in mid-1934, with Monroe witnessing her mother kicking and screaming wildly before the police were called. First, Baker learned that her 13-year-old son Jackie, taken from her as an infant, had died of kidney disease, resulting in mom lashing out at Monroe for being the one to live.

#Was gladys baker morris dna approved series#

However, a series of unfortunate events prompted things to take a turn for the worse in the fall of 1933. Marilyn Monroe, bottom right, with her mother, Gladys Baker, top right, and friends, circa 1929 Getty Images Their shared living time ended when Monroe’s mom was institutionalizedĮven though Baker’s requests to adopt Monroe were rejected, when Monroe was seven years old, Ida decided it was time for mother and daughter to reunite for good.įor a while, Baker rose to the occasion: She procured a loan for a new home near the Hollywood Bowl and took in actors George and Maud Atkinson as boarders to provide financial support and companionship. She locked Ida out the back door and attempted to run off with Monroe stuffed in a duffel bag, before the foster mom succeeded in thwarting the attempt. Randy Taraborrelli, an agitated Baker showed up at the Bolenders’ one day and demanded to take her 3-year-old daughter home. As detailed in The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, by J. However, Baker was also showing signs of the mental instability that was plaguing her own mother and making both women dangerous to be around. She dropped by frequently to spend time with Monroe and, when the girl was old enough, would occasionally take her for sleepovers to her apartment in Hollywood. Having already had two children, Jackie and Berniece, taken from her by an ex-husband, Baker was determined to keep this one in her life. The devoutly religious Ida ran the household with a firm but compassionate grasp, and the girl grew close to her foster brothers and sisters.įurthermore, this was the period when Baker was most devoted to her well-being. Monroe’s mother frequently visited her daughter in the foster homeĭespite the inauspicious beginnings, Monroe’s early years were the most stable of her life. The sad dropoff and departure marked the first fracture in the troubled relationship between the girl who would become world-famous as Marilyn Monroe and her mother, one that rarely found solid ground in the 36-plus years they knew one another.

There was no sign of any father-officially unknown, though Baker would insist for years that it was a Consolidated Studios co-worker named Charles Stanley Gifford-nor of the baby girl’s grandmother, Della Monroe, though she had at least arranged things with the Bolenders before running off to India.

On June 13, 1926, 26-year-old Gladys Baker brought her 2-week-old daughter, Norma Jeane Mortenson, to the foster home of Ida and Wayne Bolender in Hawthorne, California.