Today is September 15th

Born on this date in the year 1946 was Texas native and Hollywood actor Tommy Lee Jones.

Also, a young lady by the name of Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on this date. The year was 1890. We now know her as Agatha Christie.

A few of you may remember that it was on this date in the year 1961 that Hurricane Carla blew through the Houston area. It is estimated that nearly 50 lives were lost during that storm

And finally..

Our story today starts in the charity ward of the Los Angeles General Hospital. It was there that a newborn baby girl was introduced to the world on June 1st, 1926. The girls’ mother, Gladys, listed the fathers name and address as “unknown” on the birth certificate. This young girl would grow up not knowing for certain who her father was.

The girls mother was unmarried and constantly battling depression. Her mother would be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Because of this, the young girl spent nearly all of her childhood in various orphanages and foster homes.

Albert and Ida Bolender would be the girls foster parents for the first seven years of her life. Afterwards, the little girl and her mother would briefly live together for the first time. Unfortunately, her mother was still battling depression and mental instability and it wasn’t long before Gladys was again admitted to the psychiatric hospital. The young girl would then live with a family friend named Grace McKee. Grace provided a good, caring and supportive home environment. However, not much time would pass before Grace was married. And, as with many newlyweds, the young couple was having a hard time making ends meet. The two of them just could not afford to provide for the needs of a growing child and the little girl was once again placed in an orphanage.

Even though Grace could not directly provide for the well-being of the child, she kept in touch with her and visited her often at the orphanage. It was not uncommon for Grace to take the young girl to the movies, to buy her clothing and to just be there for her.

After a few years and several more moves to various foster homes, the girl would once again be invited into the home of Grace McKee and her husband. The girl, now 15 years old, would meet a young neighbor by the name of Jim Dougherty. Although he was 5 years her senior, their friendship quickly developed into a serious relationship.

However, barely a year would pass before Graces husbands job forced the couple to move to the east coast. Once again, the couple could not afford to take the young lady with them, so they strongly encouraged her to marry the neighborhood boy. She did,and they were married for barely 2 years before he was sent overseas to help fight in World War II.

To battle the loneliness and to help pay the bills, the 18 year old young lady took a job in a factory inspecting army parachutes. And it was there that in an effort to make promotional posters showing women working on the assembly lines of U.S. factories, that the Army happened to snap a picture of the young lady as she worked. Very soon after this photo was taken, the photographer would return to the factory asking specifically for another chance to photograph the young woman.

As fate would have it, the little orphaned girl had blossomed into a beautiful young lady. Very soon, due to that one-in-a-million photo, taken on the factory assembly line, she would be on the covers of 33 different national catalogs and magazines.

All of these cover photos helped to launch her career in singing and hollywood, and she would become a huge, huge star. But really, there is only one photo that comes to mind when someone mentions the name of the young lady in this story. The historic image is of the laughing, beautiful blond standing on a subway vent while her white dress is blown by a blast of air. And it was on this date, September 15th, in the year 1954, that Marilyn Monroe was immortalized on film while shooting a movie entitled “The Seven Year Itch”.

And that is just one of the things that has ocurred on this date in history.