Marilyn Monroe had been raised for a short time in an orphanage and she often told the press that she had no living family. Due to the star’s wishes for privacy, fans around the world had no idea that she had a sister for many years. After Monroe’s death, Berniece Miracle broke her silence and told the world about the sister that she loved dearly.
Berniece Miracle didn’t know that she had a sister for many years. It wasn’t until Miracle was nineteen years old that she received a letter from her estranged birth mother, who wrote about her sister named Norma Jeane, who was seven years younger than Berniece. This fact shocked her and started a relationship that would last for the rest of the budding starlet’s life.
Marilyn's Birth Name Was Norma Jeane
Marilyn Monroe, the actress, model and singer who rose to fame in the 1950s, was born in June of 1926. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles, California to Gladys Baker, who at the time was 24. And for the first many years of her life, Monroe didn’t know much about her extended family, or even if she had any other family at all.
Her Life Was Unsteady From the Start
Norma Jeane, as Monroe was called then, lived periodically with her mother until she was ten years old. Her early years were happily spent enjoying the simple pleasures of childhood, but by the time she reached ten years of age, trouble started to dismantle the happy life she knew as a child. And by her teenage years, she needed to reach out to her extended family for help.
Norma Jeane Lived In Foster Homes For Years
Monroe was placed into a foster family shortly after her birth, and her living situation was always changing. After living with her mother for a few years, it became clear that Gladys was not mentally stable enough to care for her daughter, so Monroe was sent away to live with a friend of her mother’s named Grace Goddard. It was during this time that Monroe first made contact with her long lost sister.
Her Sister Berniece Lived in Kentucky
Berniece Baker grew up in Kentucky, far away from the California sunshine. She enjoyed dancing to the swing music of the ‘30s and ‘40s and she often found herself in trouble with her teachers at school for disrupting lessons. She spent her early years with her brother, Jackie and her father and step-mother, but she always had questions about her birth mother, who she only ever saw in a photo kept on her dresser.
Her Mother Left the Family With No Forwarding Address
Berniece was born in 1919, seven years before her mother Gladys would give birth to Norma Jeane. And in that time, Gladys Baker had cut all contact with her ex-husband Jasper, and their two children, Jackie and Berniece. Baker wrote on Monroe’s birth certificate that she had no other living children, further cutting ties with the family she had fled from. But this wouldn’t be the end of her relationship with her estranged daughter.
Both Girls Lived in Unhappy Households
Berniece Baker and Marilyn Monroe had more than just a maternal line in common; both girls grew up in households that often were fraught with turmoil. After Monroe’s mother left her care to receive treatment in a state ward for her mental illness, she was sent to various orphanages and never found much comfort in this routine. Baker’s household was similar in feeling; after Gladys Baker left her father, he remarried to a stern woman who was much older than himself and he didn’t have much affection to spare for his children.
She Wasn't Aware That Her Mother Was Still Alive
Berniece grew up with a brother, who sadly passed away at the age of fourteen. She then spent the rest of her teenage years not thinking much about her birth mother, often believing that she must have passed away. It was not until Berniece was nineteen and ready to get married that she thought about her mother again.
A Letter From a Family Member Came in the Mail
When Berniece was nineteen, shortly after she married her husband Paris Miracle, her father came to her door with a letter. According to Berniece, “He said, “I don’t know if I ought to give you this or not. At first I thought I would never show it to you. Your stepmother and I talked about it. We decided it’s your letter.“ The envelope he handed me was already open.” And it was from this letter that Berniece first learned that she had a younger sister named Norma Jeane.
Her Mother Had Written to Ask For Assistance
The letter was from her mother, who told her daughter that she had a twelve-year-old sister named Norma Jeane. Along with this information, Gladys included an address where she could write to her sister. At the time of writing this letter to her daughter, Gladys had been hospitalized for about six years and wasn’t the current care-giver of her daughter Norma Jeane, who at the time was living with a family friend. This letter answered so many questions for Berniece, who immediately set out to make her first contact with her sister.
Berniece Made Contact with Her Long-Lost Sister
In Berniece’s first letter to her sister, she sent a photograph of herself, so she was delighted when she received a letter back from Norma Jeane with a photograph of the young girl attached. Norma’s letters to her sister were sweet and full of questions about life in Kentucky, and at the end of each letter, she signed off by writing “Your sister.” After learning more about her sister, Berniece was set on trying to improve her lot in life.
Norma Jeane Needed a Stable Household
Berniece spent the next few years writing to other family members who could assist in getting her mother Gladys out of the institution she had been living in and getting Norma Jeane in a better living situation. The two sisters kept in touch through the years, but as they both grew older, they regretted that they hadn’t yet had the chance to meet in person.
She Got Married At the Age of 16
When Norma Jeane was 16 years old, Berniece got a letter in the mail announcing her engagement to be married. Norma married Jim Dougherty in 1942, when the young man was 21 years of age. Dougherty joined the Merchant Navy after the young couple moved to Santa Catalina Island, which was where Norma Jeane would soon start her modeling career, leading her to become Marilyn.
She Longed to Meet Her Sister For the First Time
Berniece was happy to hear that her sister had found a man who seemed to make her happy. As a wife with a daughter of her own, Berniece was mostly ecstatic to finally have the family that she had always wanted when she was young. She continues to hear from her sister often, and is pleased that Norma seemed to revel in being a housewife by learning to cook and getting a dog, but not everything would stay so picture perfect for long.
World War II Added Stress to Their Lives
The only stress that the young couple seemed to have was a fear that Dougherty would be drafted in the near future. The advancements of World War II also put a strain on Berniece’s family, who was considering moving out of Kentucky to improve their financial situation. They move to Detroit in 1944 and continue to update Norma Jeane about their whereabouts.
Norma Jeane Was Proud of Her Family
Norma Jeane also provided her sister with constant updates. During the war, Norma lived with Dougherty in Catalina Island, where he was stationed to train for the merchant marine. Norma collected the photographs her sister sent and proudly showed them to visitors and neighbors. They often talked about finally meeting in person, with Marilyn once writing, “I know that once you get here you wouldn’t want to leave, at least that’s what most people say. And I do want to see you all very much and I know Mother would too.”
She Was Photographed For the First Time
During the war, Norma Jeane also started to work on an assembly line in a defense plant. She strived for perfection in her job as a glue sprayer and earned herself a certificate for excellence, much to the envy of her coworkers. It was at this job that Norma was first photographed for a magazine. These photos were later sent to the owner of a modeling agency, who soon signed Norma as a model, which eventually caused a rift in her marriage.
She Quit Her Job to Focus on Her Modeling Career
While her modeling career was burgeoning, Norma Jeane was learning what she wanted to do with her life for the first time. She soon quit her job at the factory to focus on her new career and she took on jobs as a model and hostess. It was in this unstable period of her life that she finally met her sister, who provided her with some incredible guidance.
The Two Sisters Finally Met
Norma Jeane first met her sister in 1944, when she was 18 and her sister was 25 years old. Norma visited Berniece and her husband Paris at their home in Detroit, spending nearly all of her wife’s allotment money given to her because of her husband’s position in the marines on a train ticket. Berniece and her husband were worried that they wouldn’t be able to recognize Norma in the crowded train station, but that wasn’t the case.
They Noticed a Family Resemblance
Berniece remembered the day she first met her sister, writing, “There was no chance of missing her! All the passengers stepping off [the train] looked so ordinary, and then, all of a sudden, there was this tall, gorgeous girl. None of the other passengers looked anything like that: tall, so pretty and fresh, wearing what she had described, a cobalt blue wool suit and a hat with a heart shaped dip in the brim.”
"We Couldn't Stop Looking At Each Other"
When Berniece met Marilyn, who was still known by her birth name of Norma Jeane then, she noted that it was like looking in the mirror to see her sister for the first time. “We couldn’t stop staring at each other,” she wrote. “We had the same dark blond hair with a widow’s peak, the same mouth, but our eyes were different— mine are brown and Norma Jeane’s were blue like our mother’s.”
They Shared Their Deepest, Darkest Secrets
When the sisters traveled the city together, they shared stories of their childhood that they had never uttered before. Norma Jeane shared with Berniece that her mother used to use a dresser drawer as a crib when she was a baby, and Berniece shared with her the only picture she had of their mother. The meeting was bittersweet, because it reminded the older sister that she hadn’t seen in mother in person for decades.
Neither Had Seen Their Mother in Years
Norma Jeane and her sister talked about their mother at length during their first meeting. Norma herself hadn’t seen Gladys in ten years before she visited her mother at the mental institution she was living in. Looking back on that moment, Norma told her sister that she almost wished that she hadn’t visited her at all and that her memories of her mother were like a blur to her in the present moment.
They Were More Alike Than They Realized
When Norma Jeane and Berniece caught up, they also realized their similar passions. Norma adored a piano that her mother got for her when she was a child and she brought up a tap dancing routine that she had done for a church talent show. Berniece then asked her what song she danced to and when she heard that her reply was “College Rhythm” she jumped up in her seat. She had also done a dance routine to that song when she was a child, proving just how much the sisters had in common while they were hundreds of miles apart.
They Planned to Reunite With Their Mother
Norma Jeane continued to speak about their mother, saying “she’s really a stranger to me. Almost as much a stranger as she is to you. Part of me wants to be with her… and part of me is a little afraid of her.” The sisters still had so much love for their ailing mother, and they didn’t realize that she would soon be in their lives again…
Norma Jeane Was Growing Up Fast
While Norma Jeane stayed with her sister, she often cooked meals for the small family. At their home, she often cooked a side dish of peas and carrots, which she loved to mix because of their bright colors. Later in life, Berniece saw this fact repeated in many fan magazines, a fact which she was pleased to know was actually true.
Her Career Was Beginning to Bloom
Norma Jeane’s father had passed away before she was born, leaving her envious of her sister’s situation. But Berniece was quick to tell her sister that although she knew her father, they weren’t exactly close. The first meeting of the two girls was a monumental moment in both of their lives, and Berniece had no idea what life had in store for her sister in the coming years.
She Had a Stutter to Overcome
While Norma Jeane was visiting her sister, it became apparent to Berniece that Norma had a stutter. She often stammered through sentences and lacked confidence while speaking, but when she spoke on subjects that she knew a lot about, her stutter disappeared. This problem would soon arise again when Norma started her acting career.