Marilyn Monroe, Vintage Hollywood‘s famous “blonde bombshell,” rarely discussed her family and childhood with the media. The decision had been made by her publicists to concoct a fake story about the starlet being a orphan, but, in reality, she had a mother who was still very much alive. Unfortunately, Gladys Pearl Baker’s life-long struggles with mental health meant she was in and out of her daughter’s life up until the latter’s untimely death in 1962.
Gladys Pearl Baker’s early life
Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe) was born on May 27, 1902, in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The early years of her life were anything but stable, as her father, a house painter who struggled with mental health issues and alcoholism, frequently moved the family around. By 1903, they’d settled in Los Angeles County, California, where Otis Monroe found work with the Pacific Electric Railway Company.
The patriarch’s deteriorating mental health made the Monroe house a difficult place to live in. Baker and her brother, Marion, had to contend with their father’s frequent headaches, seizures, and fits of despair and rage, and it was common for the pair to have to sit by as their parents fought.
Unable to care for her husband, Della Monroe institutionalized her husband, who passed away in 1909. Now the sole caretaker of her children, she took on employment as a domestic worker and rented out rooms in the family home. Despite her efforts, the trio continued to face financial hardship, with additional turmoil coming from the matriarch bringing various men into their lives.
Two failed marriages
At just 14 years old, Gladys Pearl married Jasper Newton Baker, a businessman from Kentucky. Unfortunately, their union was a near mirror image of her parents’, as it was fraught with violence and abuse. They had two children, Robert and Berniece, before divorcing in 1921. Jasper took his son and daughter back to Kentucky, despite his ex-wife being granted sole custody, leaving her devastated.
Three years later, Baker married Martin Edward Mortensen, a meterman with the Southern California Gas Company. However, their relationship was short-lived, as the former quickly grew bored of her husband and left him. They divorced in 1928, but not before Baker gave birth to her third child: the future Marilyn Monroe.
Giving birth to Hollywood’s future ‘blonde bombshell’
On June 1, 1926, Gladys Pearl Baker gave birth to Norma Jeane Mortensen (later known as Marilyn Monroe). Despite being given Martin’s last name, the identity of Norma Jeane’s father remained shrouded in mystery. It wasn’t until a DNA test was conducted in 2022 that the man’s identity was revealed: Charles Stanley Gifford. Baker had been working as a film cutter at RKO Pictures at the time, and Gifford was her superior.
Unfortunately Baker began to struggle with postpartum depression and other mental health issues, making it difficult for her to care for her daughter. Within two weeks of Norma Jeane being born, she was placed in the care of the Bolenders, a foster family from Hawthrone, California.
While Baker was given permission to visit her on weekends, her presence in her daughter’s life was sporadic. There was also an alleged abduction attempt, which involved breaking into the foster home, locking Ida Bolender out of the residence and having Norma Jeane stuffed into a duffel bag.
Gladys Pearl Baker’s declining mental health
By the early 1930s, Gladys Pearl Baker’s mental health had begun to deteriorate more and more. Similar to her father, she dealt with mood swings and paranoia, which, along with Robert’s death at just 13 years old and an impending RKO strike, led to a nervous breakdown in 1934. She was subsequently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and institutionalized at Los Angeles General Hospital. She was later moved to Norwalk State Hospital in Los Angeles County.
Her hospitalization made it difficult for Baker to be involved in Norma Jeane’s life, leading to her friend, Grace McKee, becoming the young girl’s legal guardian. She also took over the responsibility of overseeing Baker’s care. Speaking about that time, the star said, “Aunt Grace would say things to me like no one else would ever talk to me. I felt as whole as a loaf of bread nobody’s eaten.”
Sadly, the treatment Baker received failed to significantly improve her condition, leading her to spend much of her remaining life in and out of psychiatric facilities.
Marilyn Monroe presented herself as an orphan
In 1946, Norma Jeane and Gladys Pearl Baker lived together, but their time in the same house was short-lived. The latter was less than enthused about her daughter’s pursuit of fame and ran off with John Stewart Eley. He became Baker’s fourth husband, even though he already had a wife and family.
By the 1950s, Norma Jeane, who by this time was going by the name “Marilyn Monroe,” had skyrocketed to fame, with everyone interested in the popular “blonde bombshell.” Similar to her childhood, Gladys Pearl Baker’s involvement in her life was limited, but that didn’t stop the starlet and model from financially supporting her mother. The funds were used to ensure she had a place to stay.
Monroe last saw Baker in the summer of 1962, just a few weeks before her untimely death from a barbiturate overdose. During their meeting, the former tried to persuade her mother to take her medication, but she refused, saying she only needed prayers.
How did Marilyn Monroe feel about her mother?
Marilyn Monroe’s feelings toward her mother were complex. Despite the instability of her childhood and how absent her Gladys Pearl Baker was during her formative years, the starlet kept contact with her as an adult and, as aforementioned, supported her financially. That being said, there was always an underlying fear that she would inherit her mother’s mental health issues.
Monroe’s publicists tried to push the narrative that she was an orphan, and it was believed she was one until a journalist broke the story in 1952 that Baker was alive, leading the latter to suffer yet another nervous breakdown.
However, the blonde bombshell wasn’t shy when it came to discussing her difficult upbringing. On the rare occasion she decided to open up about her private life, Monroe described Baker as distant and troubled.
Gladys Pearl Baker’s later life and death
Following her daughter’s death in August 1962, Gladys Pearl Baker continued to live a quiet and secluded life. Marilyn Monroe had left her a trust fund ($5,000 a year), which afforded her some financial stability in her later years.
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Unhappy with being cooped up in mental health facilities, Baker made several escape attempts, leading to her eventual transfer to Camarillo State Mental Hospital, in California. In 1967, she was released from professional care and granted permission to live with her daughter, Berniece, in Florida. She subsequently lived out her final days in Gainesville, dying of heart failure on March 11, 1984, at the age of 81.