<P> Monroe became a ward of the state, and her mother's friend, Grace McKee Goddard, took responsibility over her and her mother's affairs . In the following four years, she lived with several foster families, and often switched schools . For the first sixteen months, she continued living with the Atkinsons; she was sexually abused during this time . Always a shy girl, she now also developed a stutter and became withdrawn . In the summer of 1935, she briefly stayed with Grace and her husband Erwin "Doc" Goddard and two other families, until Grace placed her in the Los Angeles Orphans Home in Hollywood in September 1935 . While the orphanage was "a model institution", and was described in positive terms by her peers, Monroe found being placed there traumatizing, as to her "it seemed that no one wanted me". </P> <P> Encouraged by the orphanage staff who thought that Monroe would be happier living in a family, Grace became her legal guardian in 1936, although she was not able to take her out of the orphanage until the summer of 1937 . Monroe's second stay with the Goddards lasted only a few months, as Doc molested her . After staying with various of her and Grace's relatives and friends in Los Angeles and Compton, Monroe found a more permanent home in September 1938, when she began living with Grace's aunt, Ana Atchinson Lower, in the Sawtelle district . She was enrolled in Emerson Junior High School and was taken to weekly Christian Science services with Lower . Monroe was otherwise a mediocre student, but she excelled in writing and contributed to the school's newspaper . Due to the elderly Lower's health issues, Monroe returned to live with the Goddards in Van Nuys in either late 1940 or early 1941 . After graduating from Emerson, she began attending Van Nuys High School . </P> <P> In early 1942, the company that Doc Goddard worked for required him to relocate to West Virginia . California laws prevented the Goddards from taking Monroe out of state, and she faced the possibility of having to return to the orphanage . As a solution, she married their neighbors' son, 21 - year - old factory worker James "Jim" Dougherty, on June 19, 1942, just after her 16th birthday . Monroe subsequently dropped out of high school and became a housewife; she later stated that the "marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy, either . My husband and I hardly spoke to each other . This wasn't because we were angry . We had nothing to say . I was dying of boredom ." In 1943, Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine . He was initially stationed on Catalina Island, where she lived with him until he was shipped out to the Pacific in April 1944; he would remain there for most of the next two years . After Dougherty's deployment, Monroe moved in with his parents and began a job at the Radioplane Munitions Factory in Van Nuys, both as part of the war effort and to earn her own income . </P> <P> In late 1944, Monroe met photographer David Conover, who had been sent by the U.S. Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) to the factory to shoot morale - boosting pictures of female workers . Although none of her pictures were used by the FMPU, she quit working at the factory in January 1945 and began modeling for Conover and his friends . She moved out of her in - laws' home, defying them and her husband, and signed a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency in August 1945 . As a model, she occasionally used the name Jean Norman . She straightened her curly brunette hair and dyed it blonde to make her more employable . Her figure was deemed more suitable for pin - up than fashion modeling, and she was featured mostly in advertisements and men's magazines . The agency's owner, Emmeline Snively, said that Monroe was one of its most ambitious and hard - working models; by early 1946, she had appeared on 33 magazine covers for publications such as Pageant, U.S. Camera, Laff, and Peek . </P>

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