On June 1, 1926, perhaps the most famous actress of all time, Marilyn Monroe, was born.
But few people know that seven years before she gave birth to Marilyn, her mother had given birth to two more children from her first husband Jasper Newton Baker, namely Berniece and Robert Kermit. After the divorce he kidnapped the children and kept them until he died of kidney failure.
They were then adopted by a woman, and Marilyn grew up in a foster home after the psychological problems her mother faced.
Many years later, Gladys Baker, having recovered from the psychiatric problems that had long plagued her, decided to resume contact with her first daughter, nineteen years old at the time, by writing her a letter. In that letter Baker informed Berniece that she had a 12-year-old sister, named Norma (Marilyn Monroe's real name), who lived in Los Angeles.
Berniece Baker then decided to immediately write a letter to her sister whom she had never met, adding a photo inside the envelope, and the teenage Norma Jean wrote back, thus beginning an exchange of letters through which they got to know each other better.
Their relationship, despite the distance, became so strong that Berniece Baker decided to help her younger sister, who at that time was still living in the house of a friend of her mother, but unfortunately she did not succeed. However, their bond was so strong that when Norma Jean became engaged to James Dougherty at the age of 16, one of the first people she confided in was her older sister.
However, two more years passed before the two managed to meet: it happened in Detroit, where Berniece had moved with her husband Paris Miracle. Norma Jean, 18, joined her, and her older sister described the first meeting this way.
"It was impossible not to know each other! All the passengers getting off the train looked so ordinary, then, suddenly, this tall and beautiful girl got off. We couldn't stop looking at each other. We had the same blonde hair, the same mouth, only the eyes were different."
The sisters also immediately found the understanding created in exchanging letters in person and during that day spoke at length about their mother, calling her 'a real stranger'.
If Marilyn's public life is history, her family life is even less so. Her sister Berniece was always with her, often visiting her.
Marilyn e mori nënën dhe motrën e saj në një turne nëpër Los Anxhelos, duke u përpjekur të rindërtonte atë marrëdhënie familjare që ato kurrë nuk e kishin pasur në të vërtetë. Ëndrra e aktores për të pasur gjithmonë Berniece-n pranë saj ishte aq e fortë sa u përpoq t'i gjente një punë në Fox, por fatkeqësisht, përveçse nuk e gjeti vendin e punës për të, Marilyn u pushua edhe vetë nga puna.
Megjithatë, mundësitë nuk vonuan: në vitin 1948, një kontratë me Columbia Pictures mbërriti për yllin, por ndërkohë presioni dhe ndërhyrja e mediave mbi jetën e saj dhe të familjes ishin bërë gjithnjë e më mbytëse. Aq sa, për të mbrojtur Berniece-n, Marilyn Monroe mori një vendim shumë të rëndësishëm. Ajo filloi t'i tregonte shtypit se ishte jetime dhe se nuk kishte askënd nga familja gjallë.
Through her public relations staff she spread false stories about her past.
The ploy seemed to work.
Outside of Marilyn's public life, the actress and her sister have always supported each other, so much so that in 1961, when Monroe learned she had to undergo surgery, Berniece Baker immediately joined her in New York.
"Since then I have never been the same. I chose her coffin and the green dress," said Berniece about her sister's death.
It was also for this that Berniece Baker decided to write a memoir about her sister alone, My Sister Marilyn: A Memoir of Marilyn Monroe, published in 1994.
Marilyn's older sister, who was kept hidden for most of the actress' successful years, passed away in 2014 at the age of 94./TiranaPost
