Free Marilyn Monroe by Michelle Morgan

Grace would listen intently as Norma Jeane told her foster-mother anything that was on her mind, and as her trust grew, the teenager became close to the entire family.She enjoyed many family get-togethers and started spending more time with Grace’s sister and brother-in-law, Enid and Sam Knebelkamp. She was later filmed trying on a new fur coat and posing with other family members outside the Knebelkamp home.
    ‘As far as I can see, she was well treated and happy,’ remembered Bob Stotts, while his mother added, ‘Norma Jeane spent her teen years in a very good neighbourhood environment with an adult who was just as concerned for her welfare as any parent might be.’
    The house on Archwood Street, where Norma Jeane had settled with Grace and Doc, backed on to the home of the Dougherty family, who were very close friends with the Goddards. Ethel Dougherty could often be seen chatting over the back fence with Grace, and the two of them enjoyed many a plan and scheme over the years. Ethel’s son was a strapping young man called Jim, who was five years older than Norma Jeane, and considered both Bebe and Norma Jeane as just kids who weren’t particularly interesting in any way.
    At the time, Jim was dating a young woman called Doris Drennen, the 1940 May Queen of Santa Barbara County. She had met him while living with her sister Joan and brother-in-law John Ingram, who also happened to be Jim Dougherty’s teacher at Van Nuys High School. She remembers: ‘Norma Jeane was a couple of years younger than me. After school she would come over to Jimmy’s house and wait for her foster-mother to pick her up after she got off work. I would see her when Jimmy and I would stop by for Jimmy to change clothes or retrieve something. I usually stayed in the car and waited for him to return. She would be playing ball by herself in front of Jimmy’s house. She’d bounce the ball then throw it in the air and catch it, peek at me then throw it again.’
    Neither girl knew it at the time, but Doris would become quite a sore point for Norma Jeane during the next few years. It all started during 1941, when the Goddards decided to move into a bigger home at 6707 Odessa Street, where they had livedin the late 1930s. Grace and Doc quickly went about doing the place up, and eventually took photos of their work, showing a comfortable home with a large dining table, rocking chair, piano, many books, a china cabinet and floor-length mirror. In September 1941, Norma Jeane and foster-sister Bebe enrolled as students at Van Nuys High School. This proved a bit of a problem regarding transport, so Grace, who was still in contact with Ethel Dougherty, asked her friend if Jim could run the girls home from school in the evening. He reluctantly agreed and it was arranged that Bebe and Norma Jeane would walk from Van Nuys High to the Dougherty house, where they would wait for Jim to take them home.
    The first time this happened, Jim was sleeping in preparation for the ‘graveyard shift’ at Lockheed, where he worked. When Norma Jeane and Bebe arrived, they were so noisy they woke up the exasperated Jim, who immediately told them off. However, Norma Jeane’s apologetic reaction to his outburst won him over, and he found it impossible to be angry with the girls any more.
    Shortly before this, Jim had proposed to his girlfriend, Doris, who turned him down immediately. Jim later said she had told him he wouldn’t be able to keep her in the manner to which she wanted to become accustomed and the relationship came to an end. However, Jim’s heartbreak was Norma Jeane’s delight, and she decided to try her hand at flirting with the handsome older boy. During their car rides she would make a point of always sitting in the middle; touching Jim’s knee as she laughed at his jokes. Indeed, it got so intense that Bebe would often feel completely left out of the proceedings: ‘As I recall, there was quite a flirtation when Jimmy was bringing us home from