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DOUGHERTY James (known as Jim)

 

James Edward Dougherty.

 

Date of birth  : April 12, 1921, California ().

Date of death : August 15, 2005, San Rafael, California. Buried in Lewiston, Maine ().

Portrait ,,,,,,,

;

Addresses

* 1941 : 14747 Archwood Street, Van Nuys

* 1942 : with Norma Jeane, 4524 Vista Del Monte, Sherman Oaks District, San Fernando Valley.

* 1943 : with Norma Jeane, 14747 Archwood Street, Van Nuys (former house of Jim's parents)

            with Norma Jeane at Bessemer Street, Van Nuys

            with Norma Jeane, Avalon, Catalina Island.

* 1950 : 6841 Rhea Avenue, Los Angeles ()

* 80's and 90's : in Maine.

 

Occupation

Funeral services of Drink Water.

Fitter at the Lockheed Aircrat factory, Burbank.

Enlisted in the merchant navy.

National service in  South-East Asia.

Policeman in the LAPD (joined in 1947).


 

Story  

Youngest child df a 4 children family, who had lived difficulties during the crisis of 1929.

Pupil fairly hardworking but popular.

He attended Van Nuys High School that attended too in 1941-1942. He played in plays because he was member

of the Van Nuys High School Theater Club, "The Masquers" ().

Brilliant sportsman he became champion of the football team () and was, for a short time, predisent of the students.

Thanks to his ability in football, he obtained a scholarship for higher education; he refused it to work and help his family. For 6 months he worked at the Funeral Services of Drink Water, then a as fitter, on the nightshift, at the Lockheed Aricraft Factory, in Burbank (bombers construction).

1941 

He worked at the Lockheed Aircraft factory and earned enough money to buy a blue Ford touring coupé.

He dated Norma Jeane; his mother Ethel, friend of Grace McKee, often asked him to bring Norma Jeane and Bebe (Eleanor Goddard) back from school (the Goddards, former neighbors of the Doughertys, had moved in and lived, from then on, at Odessa Avenue).

However he had a girlfriend, Doris Drennan, elected 1940 May Queen of Santa Barbara .

Christmas : Grace McKee asked him to escort Norma Jeane at the ball of the Adel Precision Products (231 South Olive Street, Burbank) where Doc Goddard worked.

1942 

Registration card February 14, 1942

With Norma Jeane they went moving around by foot or by car; they went on Mulholland Drive to watch the lights of Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley.

June 19, 1942 : wedding with Norma Jeane, at Mr and Mrs Chester Howell's house,432 South Bentley Avenue, West Los Angeles (Grace McKee had chosen this house because she thought that the spiral staircase would

allowed Norma Jeane to make a theatrical arrival) ,,

The celebration began at 8.30 PM.

Celebrated by Reverend Benjamin Lingenfelder, from the Christian Science Church; Gladys Baker and the Goddards were missing.

Marion, Jim's brother, was his best man; the bridesmaid was Norma Jeane's schoolmate, Lorraine Allen; Ana Lower replaced Gladys and took Norma Jeane at the altar;the Bolenders were there.

Wedding announcement


Pictures of the wedding 

-,-,,,-


Picture of the wedding gown 


Wedding certificate ,


Press articles ;


They lived 4524 Vista Del Monte Avenue, Sherman Oaks ,,

 

They didn't have a honeymoon but spent a week-end of fishing at Sherwood Lake ,

,;

Norma Jeane left school and had to make her own way because she was then considered as an adult by the society.

December 1942 : they left their apartment and settled in the former house of Jim's parents, 14747 Archwood Street, Van Nuys; the Duoghertys had moved in a larger house in North Hollwyood.

Later, they moved in a house in Bessemer Street.

1943 

Summer or fall : Jim enlisted in the merchant navy (,); with Norma Jeane, they lived in Avalon, on Catalina Island (for a year).

Catalina 

-,,,


Catalina Zoo 

,,,,-,

 

Jim was dealing with the training of the new inductees (); their reltionship deteriorated; he blamed her about her provoking clothes. Jim's jealousy increased more when she became the idol during a party animated by the Stan Kenton band, at the casino fo Catalina.

1944

In spring, Jim left for the Pacific, in order to have an active part in the war in South East Asia; he promised her to start a family when he would be back from the war; she went to live at her mother-in-law's house who found her a job at the Radio Plane Munitions Factory.

At the Clifton restaurant, Christmas 1944 .

 

1945

On August 2, 1945, Norma Jeane entered the Blue Book Model Agency.

They spent a week-end at the LaFonda Motor Lodge, during one of Jim's leaves.

Christmas : Jim came back from the war and gave Norma Jeane an ultimatum : to choose between a modeling life and an exemplary spouse and housekeeper life; she left her mother-in-law's house.

 

1946

March 16, 1946, party at the Coconut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel -

,

April : Jim was back; Norma Jeane lived then with Gladys Baker.

July 5 : she asked for the divorce in Las Vegas (,); at that time she lived at GraceMcKee's aunt home, Minnie Willette, because the, living in Nevada, she could obtain the divorce more quickly.

In August, Jim, in Shanghai where he was stationed, received the notification that the divorce had began

 
(
,,); he organized his return and stopped the payments he sent her regularly.

On September 13, at 2.00 PM : Jim didn't attend the hearing in front of the judge of the County, Clark A.S

Henderson, in Las Vegas; Norma Jeane obtained the divorce ,,;,

In the dividing of the shared possessions, she obtained the car.

Certification of the divorce  ,.

 

Jim was discharged of his military service at the end of 1946 and went back to live in Van Nuys ().

He joined the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department)(,,);he knew Jack Clemmons, who informed him about Marilyn's death on August 5, 1962.

In 1947 he married Patricia Ann Scoman (October 1st, 1928, Kansas-December 22, 2015, California)

(;).

They had 3 daughters : Cheryl Ann (November 27, 1947, California), Vivian Kathleen (March 3, 1950, California) and Mary Irene (May 14, 1952, California).

They divorced in May 1971 in Los Angeles.

On April 21, 1972 he married Rita Lorraine Courchesme, born Lambert (October 8, 1925, Maine-June 10, 2003,

Maine), in Las Vegas ().

They settled in Maine for several years ().

 

Bibliography

"The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe", James E. Dougherty, Chicago, Playboy Press, 1976.

 

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