However, for the 10 year old girl on Lankershim Elementary School's play yard, disadvantages were already a way of life. Norma Jean began her life in County General Hospital, given over to foster care by a mother who wasn't sure of the father's name or location. Seven sad years were to pass before her unstable mother, Gladys Baker demanded the child's return. Two fearful years would pass before the mother, a part-time film cutter for RKO Studios, was taken to a psychiatric hospital and the girl returned to foster care.

At Lankershim School (now in the heart of the NoHo Arts District) Norma Jean began to form elaborate dreams of someday beingsomebody. She won prizes in running and jumping and learned that people thought she was "a pretty little thing."

Five years of more foster homes, neglect and abuses would pass before a very attractive young woman emerged at Van Nuys High School. Norma Jean had learned that she could make her good looks work to her advantage.

The high school girl lived for a year with her guardian, Grace Goddard and her husband at 14753 Archwood in Van Nuys. But, yet another crisis occurred when Ervin Goddard's job was transferred to the east coast. Faced with returning to an orphanage, Norma Jean saw a way out. At the onset of World War II she married an unsure factory worker, 21 year old Jim Dougherty. Norma Jean was just sixteen years old. In 1944, Jimmy enlisted in the Merchant Marines and was sent overseas.

During the war, Norma Jean worked at the Radioplane Munitions Factory where a photographer took pictures of her for YANK Magazine. He encouraged the attractive young woman to apply to the Blue Book modeling agency, where she quickly became one of the company's most successful models. Now determined to control her own destiny, Norma Jean divorced Dougherty in 1946 and began a climb into one of the most famous women of her era. She read vociferously, studied clothing styles, listen to classical music and attend lessons at Actors' Lab in Hollywood.

In 1946, Norma Jean Baker became a "starlet" for 20th Century Fox Studios and began her emergence as the entertainment icon, Marilyn Monroe. That same year, she was featured on over 30 magazine covers. Work was sporadic until 1952, when she began an affair with one of America's most beloved baseball players, Joe DiMaggio. The great turning point came in 1954 when Hugh Hefner featured Marilyn as the center fold of his new Playboy Magazine. That image and the notoriety that followed made her into one of the most famous women in the world.

Films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch soon proved that the blonde bombshell could act. Few knew of her acting lessons at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.

In 1956 Marilyn Monroe married the important playwright Arthur Miller. She was now an "A-List" celebrity. Other films followed; The Prince and the Showgirl, Bus Stop and the great American classic, Some Like It Hot. In 1961, Marilyn divorced Miller. Shortly thereafter she sang her now famous Happy Birthday song to President John F. Kennedy and entered into the mysterious romance lore of the President'a family.

Marilyn Monroe died, possibly of a drug overdose, on the 8th of August, 1962. She is buried in Westwood Memorial Park just off of Wilshire in Westwood.

Lankershim Elementary School
5250 Bakman Ave.
North Hollywood, CA 91601

Dr. Gerald Fecht is the president of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley. You can contact him: gfecht@sbcglobal.net
or visit the Museum's blog at:
http://museumsanfernandovalley.blogspot.com