1. Gladys Pearl Baker's father died in 1909 after suffering from mental illness and alcoholism.
70 Facts About Gladys Pearl Baker
1. 2.
Gladys Pearl Baker was married three times for three to four years each marriage.
3.
Gladys Pearl Baker was married for the first time at age 14 to Jasper Newton Baker.
4.
Gladys Pearl Baker moved to Kentucky to be near her children but left after four months.
5.
Gladys Pearl Baker moved to Hollywood, where she became a film cutter in the growing movie industry.
6.
Gladys Pearl Baker became pregnant with her third child, Norma Jeane Mortenson.
7.
Gladys Pearl Baker struggled to take care of her daughter and placed her with a foster family weeks after her birth.
8.
Prone to mood swings, Gladys Pearl Baker had a mental breakdown after the death of her son, the suicide of her father, and news that her studio was shutting down.
9.
From 1934 until the 1960s, Gladys Pearl Baker spent most of her time in psychiatric facilities.
10.
Gladys Pearl Monroe was born on May 27,1902, in Porfirio Diaz in Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
11.
Gladys Pearl Baker's mother, Della Mae Monroe, was born in Missouri and she was from Bentonville, Arkansas, and her father, Otis Elmer Monroe, was a house painter from Indianapolis.
12.
Gladys Pearl Baker sold portraits and landscapes that he had painted and dreamed of living in Paris.
13.
Gladys Pearl Baker's father was institutionalized at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County in November 1908.
14.
Gladys Pearl Baker had an advanced, untreatable case of neurosyphilis and was semi-paralyzed due to paresis.
15.
Gladys Pearl Baker was mentally ill at the time of his death on July 22,1909.
16.
Gladys Pearl Baker married a second time to Lyle Arthur Graves, a railway switchman supervisor at Pacific Electric, on March 7,1912.
17.
Gladys Pearl Baker got along with this stepfather and had fond memories of living on a farm in Oregon.
18.
Gladys Pearl Baker was a social teen at school who, like her mother, preferred older men.
19.
Della and Gladys Pearl Baker lived off and on at his nearby two-room bungalow.
20.
Gladys Pearl Baker was very unhappy living with Grainger, as she had been with Graves.
21.
Gladys Pearl Baker owned the apartment building that Della managed.
22.
About one year later, when she was age 20, Gladys Pearl Baker moved to Kentucky to live near her children.
23.
Gladys Pearl Baker worked cleaning houses and caring for children, one of whom was named Norma Jeane.
24.
Gladys Pearl Baker had not developed the emotional stability to properly care for the children.
25.
Jasper had married a woman who was good to her children, and Gladys Pearl Baker was afraid of Jasper who had bloodied her back while she was in Kentucky.
26.
In 1923, Gladys Pearl Baker moved to Hollywood and worked for Consolidated Film Industries as a negative film cutter.
27.
Gladys Pearl Baker worked six days a week cutting out portions of the film that studio editors marked for removal.
28.
Gladys Pearl Baker worked as a film cutter at Columbia Pictures and RKO.
29.
Gladys Pearl Baker met Grace McKee, a supervisor at Consolidates, and they became good friends.
30.
Gladys Pearl Baker was described by coworkers, though, as beautiful, having twinkling green eyes and a lively spirit, delightful, and funny.
31.
Gladys Pearl Baker was initially attracted, among other things, to Mortensen's stability, but after they were married she became bored with him.
32.
Gladys Pearl Baker left him around early 1925 and moved in with Grace.
33.
Gladys Pearl Baker tried to win his wife back, but they were divorced on August 15,1928.
34.
Gladys Pearl Baker worked as a negative film cutter under Charles Stanley Gifford, her superior at RKO Pictures.
35.
Beside Gifford, Gladys Pearl Baker had relationships with other men in 1925.
36.
In late 1925,10 months after Gladys Pearl Baker left Mortensen, she found out that she was pregnant.
37.
Gladys Pearl Baker gave birth to her third and final child, Norma Jeane, on June 1,1926, in the Los Angeles County Hospital.
38.
Gladys Pearl Baker did not allow Gifford to visit her in the hospital.
39.
Gladys Pearl Baker later remarried and kept his illegitimate daughter a secret from his wife.
40.
Gladys Pearl Baker registered the surname Mortenson on Norma Jeane's birth certificate, using the name of her estranged husband and specifying his address as unknown.
41.
Gladys Pearl Baker stated that she had previously had two children, but incorrectly stated that they were no longer living.
42.
Gladys Pearl Baker lacked parenting skills and had a lifestyle that did not suit motherhood.
43.
Gladys Pearl Baker did not have viable daycare options and needed her job to earn a living.
44.
Gladys Pearl Baker experienced severe postpartum depression and was unable to take care of Norma Jeane.
45.
On one occasion, Grace prevented Gladys Pearl Baker from stabbing her daughter.
46.
Taraborrelli stated that Gladys Pearl Baker accused Grace of trying to poison the baby and then stabbed her with a knife.
47.
Gladys Pearl Baker initially moved in with the Bolenders and shared a room with Norma Jeane until she was six months old.
48.
Gladys Pearl Baker then returned to Hollywood to manage an increase in her workload.
49.
Gladys Pearl Baker visited Norma Jeane and took her on trolley cars to the beach, picnics, restaurants, and other outings on the weekends, sometimes spending the night, but the frequency waned over time.
50.
In early 1927, Gladys Pearl Baker moved into Della's house, as Della had developed a weak heart, respiratory problems, degenerative heart disease, and acute depression.
51.
Gladys Pearl Baker died on August 23,1927, of a heart attack.
52.
Gladys Pearl Baker is credited with saving a number of lives when she escorted women from the editing studio to outside of the building.
53.
Gladys Pearl Baker learned in October 1933 that her grandfather Tilford Hogan killed himself.
54.
Gladys Pearl Baker became despondent and inconsolable believing that she would likely experience mental illness like her parents and grandfather.
55.
Norma Jeane and Grace cared for her and tried to comfort her, but Gladys Pearl Baker continued to cry and failed to get the rest she needed.
56.
Gladys Pearl Baker received medicine from a neurologist, but she had violent reactions to the psychotropic drugs.
57.
In January 1934, Gladys Pearl Baker had a mental breakdown in front of eight-year-old Norma Jeane, who was forced to witness her mother flailing and screaming until the police arrived.
58.
Gladys Pearl Baker was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and after several months in a rest home, she was committed to the Los Angeles General Hospital.
59.
Gladys Pearl Baker was considered incompetent to take care of herself.
60.
Gladys Pearl Baker was cared for by Grace's aunt, Ana Lower.
61.
Gladys Pearl Baker helped Norma Jeane schedule modeling appointments and with the shopping.
62.
Gladys Pearl Baker was married for a third time in 1949, to the electrician John Stewart Eley.
63.
Gladys Pearl Baker claimed that Eley was an abusive alcoholic and filed for divorce in February 1952.
64.
Out of the hospital, Gladys Pearl Baker worked at a nursing home in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles and as a housekeeper in Los Angeles.
65.
Gladys Pearl Baker was sent money regularly by Norma Jeane, who became an actress under the stage name Marilyn Monroe.
66.
In fall of 1952, Gladys Pearl Baker returned to Grace's house, where she suffered another nervous breakdown.
67.
Gladys Pearl Baker was admitted to Rockhaven Sanitarium in 1953 and was supported by Monroe with $250 per month.
68.
The last time Gladys Pearl Baker ever saw Monroe was in the summer of 1962.
69.
Gladys Pearl Baker refused, saying that she only needed prayers, not medicine.
70.
Gladys Pearl Baker made multiple attempts to escape from the sanitarium.