my sister marilyn a memoir of marilyn monroe

When Marilyn died in 1962, it was Berniece who flew to California to help Joe DiMaggio with the funeral arrangements, even picking out the dress Marilyn was buried in. Berniece and her daughter, Mona Rae, treasured their time spent with this beautiful young woman just starting her modeling and acting career. Their relationship continued, with letters and visits even after Marilyn's fame made this difficult. So Berniece and Norma Jeane exchanged letters, photographs, and phone calls, forging a lasting bond. It was during the final years of the Depression, and at first neither could afford the cross-country trip to meet in person. Not until Berniece was nineteen and Norma Jeane twelve did the two sisters learn of each other. The sisters grew up seven years and a continent apart - Marilyn (then Norma Jeane) in the care of her mother's California friends Berniece with her father's family in Kentucky. Berniece and Marilyn had different fathers but the same mother, whose mental illness affected both their lives. And in My Sister Marilyn, Berniece Baker Miracle tells the story you've never heard before: the story of the private person rather than of the calendar girl - of Marilyn the sister, of Marilyn the daughter, of Marilyn the aunt.

Before long, it would be the most famous face in the world.

She kept the letter, and she kept the photo of the pretty twelve-year-old face. The first time Berniece Miracle saw Norma Jeane's face was in a blurry junior high school portrait that came with a letter from this sister she'd never known.

My sister marilyn a memoir of marilyn monroe