In 1926, per Biography, Gladys Pearl Baker gave birth to Norma Jeane Mortenson — the girl who would later become Marilyn Monroe — while she was married to her second husband, Martin Edward Mortensen. However, she would give her up to foster care only two weeks later. Baker, who was plagued by mental health issues, was simply not prepared to raise a child — financially or emotionally — leaving Norma Jeane to grow up in numerous foster homes and orphanages.
However, Baker still maintained contact with her daughter, frequently visiting and even having her over for sleepovers. Nonetheless, Baker’s mental health eventually got the best of her, and she began spending time in mental institutions largely due to her paranoid schizophrenia. This began in 1934, when Monroe was around 10.
As an adult, Monroe recalled that she had been ashamed of her mother and background. “I used to tell lies,” she wrote in her posthumous memoir, “My Story,” “chiefly about my mother and father. I’d say she was dead … because I was ashamed to have the world know [she] was in a mental institution.” However, Monroe still cared for her mother as she grew successful. For one, she had her business manager look after her until Monroe’s death in 1962, and also had a trust set up for her in her will which would last until her own death in 1984 at the age of 81.
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