And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind.
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in.
I´d have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid.
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did.

Candle in the Wind,  Elton John & Bernie Taupin

She is an icon of modern culture.  A legend.

She had been in foster care most of her childhood.  She wasn’t wanted, her mother was too unreliable to take care of her.  She was convinced to marry young for that way her guardians could go to Florida without her.

“My 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.”

“Do I look happy? I should — for I was a child nobody wanted. A lonely girl with a dream — who awakened to find that dream come true. I am Marilyn Monroe. Read my Cinderella story.”

As her husband went overseas as a Merchant Marine in World War II, Norma Jeane Baker, worked in a factory, but was soon discovered by a photographer, where she became a model, then got small parts in the movies. With her stage name in place, the Performer Artisan, Marilyn (Norma Jeane) finally hit it big with singing “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend” in the comedy,  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, Some Like it Hot, Misfits are some of the highlighted movies that Marilyn Monroe starred in.  And course, she helped Playboy’s debut issue become  a success, with her nude photos.

Lee Strasberg commented, “I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of actors and actresses, and there are only two that stand out way above the rest. Number one is Marlon Brando, and the second is Marilyn Monroe.”

Performers have the special ability, even among the Artisans, to delight those around them with their warmth, their good humor, and with their often extraordinary skills in music, comedy, and drama. Please Understand Me II.

Movie director Joshua Logan wrote: “I found Marilyn to be one of the great talents of all time… she struck me as being a much brighter person than I had ever imagined, and I think that was the first time I learned that intelligence and, yes, brilliance have nothing to do with education.”

Her last, and third, husband, Arthur Miller, an Idealist, wrote, “She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence.”

Her troubled life and character fascinates many people, such several movies have been made about her.  The recently released movie My Week with Marilyn is the latest incarnation.

Stereotyped as a “ditzy blonde, sexpot” with Hollywood not giving her roles that she wanted, with her loves not able to handle her and her passion and ambition to be an great actress, her insecurities became overwhelming as she tried to medicate herself with pills and alcohol. Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Baker) died August 5, 1962, she was 36 years old.

No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they’re pretty, even if they aren’t.