Gladys Pearl Baker

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Gladys Pearl Baker
Born
Gladys Pearl Monroe

(1902-05-27)27 May 1902
Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico
Died11 March 1984(1984-03-11) (aged 81)
Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Known forMother of Marilyn Monroe
Spouse(s)
  • Jasper Newton Baker
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1917; div. 1921)​
  • Martin Edward Mortensen
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1924; div. 1928)​
  • John Stewart Eley
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1949; died 1952)​
ChildrenRobert Baker (1918–1933)
Berniece Baker Miracle (b. 1919)
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)

Gladys Pearl Baker Mortensen Eley (née Monroe; 27 May 1902 – 11 March 1984) was the mother of actress Marilyn Monroe and her sister Berniece Baker Miracle.

Childhood[]

Gladys Pearl Monroe was born on 27 May 1902 in Piedras Negras, Coahuila in Mexico. Her mother, Della Mae Monroe (née Hogan), was from Arkansas, and her father, Otis Elmer Monroe, was a painter from Minneapolis, who worked for a railroad near the Mexican border to Texas. The family soon migrated to Los Angeles County, where Della gave birth to a son, Marion Otis Elmer Monroe (1904–1929), and Otis started working for the Pacific Electric Railway Co., before dying in 1929.[1]

In 1917, Gladys married Jasper Newton "Jap" Baker (1891–1951) and gave birth to a son, Robert Kermit "Jackie" (1918–1933), followed by a daughter, Berniece Inez Gladys (b. 1919). After abusive incidents, Gladys filed for divorce from Jasper in 1921,[2] leading him to kidnap the children and raise them in his native Kentucky.[3][4]

Later life[]

Following the divorce, Gladys remarried in 1924, with Norwegian immigrant Martin Edward Mortensen (1897–1981).[5] They divorced a few years later, after Gladys met her superior at RKO Pictures, Charles Stanley Gifford (1898–1965). While working for him as a film negative cutter, she became pregnant and gave birth to her third and final child,Norma Jeane Baker on 1 June 1926 in Los Angeles County Hospital.[6] Gifford is often assumed to be her father, though the identity remains uncertain. Gladys registered the surname Mortenson on Norma Jean's birth certificate, using the name of her ex-husband and specifying his address as unknown.[7][8] Norma Jean was baptised with the name Baker, in an act of her grandmother Della to hide the illegitimacy. Della Monroe died shortly thereafter of a heart attack, and Gladys' brother Otis disappeared in October 1929 and was pronounced dead in 1955.[9]

Although Gladys was mentally and financially unprepared for a child, Norma Jean's early childhood was stable and happy.[10] Gladys placed her daughter with evangelical Christian foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender in the rural town of Hawthorne; she also lived there for the first six months, until she was forced to move back to the city due to work.[11] She then began visiting her daughter on weekends.[10] In the summer of 1933, Gladys bought a small house in Hollywood with a loan from the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and moved seven-year-old Norma Jean in with her.[12] They shared the house with lodgers, actors George and Maude Atkinson and their daughter, Nellie.[13] In January 1934, Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.[14] After several months in a rest home, she was committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital.[15] She spent the rest of her life in and out of hospitals and was rarely in contact with her daughters.[16] Norma Jean became a ward of the state, and her mother's friend, Grace Goddard, took responsibility over her and her mother's affairs.[17]

Gladys was married for a third time in 1949, to the electrician John Stewart Eley. Eley died three years later, due to heart infection. Out of hospital, Gladys worked at an Eagle Rock nursing home[18] and as a housekeeper in Los Angeles. She was sent money regularly by Norma Jean, who became an actress under the stage name Marilyn Monroe (adopting Gladys' maiden name). In an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News, Monroe stated:[9]

"My mother spent many years at the hospital. Through the Los Angeles County, my guardian placed me in several foster families and I spent more than a year at the Los Angeles Orphanage. I haven't known my mother intimately, and since I'm an adult, and able to help her, I have contacted her. Now I help her and I want to keep helping her as long as she needs me."

Gladys was readmitted to a hospital in 1953, and was supported by Monroe with $250 a month. She was looked after by Monroe's business manager, Inez Melson, until Monroe's death in 1962.[19] Gladys was left a trust fund of $100,000 by her daughter, of which she received $5,000 a year.[20] In 1963, she was reported to have walked 15 miles to the Lakeview Terrace Baptist Church. After trying to escape on numerous occasions, she was released from Rockhaven Sanitarium in 1966. Gladys first lived with her daughter Berniece, until moving to the Collins Court Home for aged people, Gainesville, Florida,[21] where she stayed until her death on 11 March 1984.

In popular culture[]

Over the years, Gladys' relationship to her children became a subject of debate and was addressed in many films about Monroe, such as My Week With Marilyn. Gladys was portrayed by Sheree North in Marilyn: The Untold Story, by Phyllis Coates in Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn, by Marla Adams in Marilyn and Me and by Patricia Richardson in Blonde.

In 2015, actress Susan Sarandon portrayed Gladys in The Secret Life Of Marilyn Monroe, which thematised Monroe's family life and the relationship to her mother.[22] Sarandon was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.[23]

References[]

  1. ^ "Inside Marilyn Monroe's Family Tree – Biography". www.biography.com. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  2. ^ Smith, James (2018). Life and death of Marilyn Monroe. Biography, personal life and death... Litres. ISBN 978-5-04-098064-2.
  3. ^ Miracle, Berniece Baker; Miracle, Mona Rae (2012). My Sister Marilyn: A Memoir of Marilyn Monroe. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4759-6809-5.
  4. ^ Taraborrelli, J. Randy (2009). The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-55095-6.
  5. ^ Harding, Les (2012). They Knew Marilyn Monroe: Famous Persons in the Life of the Hollywood Icon. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-6637-5.
  6. ^ Geiger, Ruth-Esther (1995). Marilyn Monroe (in German). Rowohlt. ISBN 978-3-499-50507-2.
  7. ^ M, Sara (2012). Marilyn Monroe: Biography of America's Sex Symbol. Hyperink Inc. ISBN 978-1-61464-763-8.
  8. ^ Julie Garber. "What Did Marilyn Monroe's Will Say?". LiveAbout. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Rollyson, Carl (2014). Marilyn Monroe Day by Day: A Timeline of People, Places, and Events. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-3080-4.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Spoto 2001, pp. 17–26; Banner 2012, pp. 32–35.
  11. ^ Spoto 2001, pp. 16–26; Churchwell 2004, p. 164; Banner 2012, pp. 22–35.
  12. ^ Spoto 2001, pp. 26–28; Banner 2012, pp. 35–39; Leaming 1998, pp. 54–55.
  13. ^ Spoto 2001, pp. 26–28; Banner 2012, pp. 35–39.
  14. ^ Churchwell 2004, pp. 155–156.
  15. ^ Churchwell 2004, pp. 155–156; Banner 2012, pp. 39–40.
  16. ^ Spoto 2001, pp. 100–101, 106–107, 215–216; Banner 2012, pp. 39–42, 45–47, 62, 72, 91, 205.
  17. ^ Spoto 2001, pp. 40–49; Churchwell 2004, p. 165; Banner 2012, pp. 40–62.
  18. ^ "Throwback Thursday: When Marilyn Monroe's Mom Was the Bombshell | Hollywood Reporter". www.hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  19. ^ Kashner, Sam. "The Things She Left Behind". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Zusammenfassung von Marilyn Monroes letztem Willen und Testament 2020". Routes to finance (in German). Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  21. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20210823041452/https://www.senioradvisor.com/local/collins-court-gainesville-fl
  22. ^ "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe | Serie 2015". moviepilot.de (in German). Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  23. ^ "Nominees for annual Screen Actors Guild Awards". AP Online. 29 March 2015. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2020 – via HighBeam Research.

External links[]

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