Test-yumpu

RETRO First love
Michelle Morgan investigates how
Norma Jeane came to marry the boy
next door and why her burgeoning
career as Marilyn Monroe spelled the
end of their marriage
Marilyn
…becoming
Mrs Dougherty
Fom top: Norma
Jeane with mum
Gladys, who had
mental health
issues and
couldn’t look
after her; as a
teenager with
her ‘Aunt’ Ana
and family; with
first husband Jim
Left: Norma
Jeane as a
teenager.
Right: The couple
on their wedding
day in 1942.
Despite being
a ‘marriage of
convenience’ it
was a relatively
happy union
When we think about the
men Marilyn Monroe
married, the names Joe
DiMaggio and Arthur
Miller immediately spring to mind. But did you
know that long before either DiMaggio or Miller
got down on bended knee, Marilyn had another
husband?
James (Jim) Dougherty was the boy next door
when Marilyn (or Norma Jeane as she was then),
was growing up in Van Nuys, California. In and
out of foster homes and an orphanage throughout
her childhood, Norma Jeane had settled with
the Goddard family, but in 1942, her foster father
was offered an employment position out of state.
Unable to take Norma Jeane with them, and fearful
that it would mean another stint in the orphanage,
foster mother Grace Goddard approached her
34 RETRO
RETRO 35