Like many of the great Hollywood true love stories, the
story of baseball Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio and the iconic blonde bombshell
Marilyn Monroe is filled with divorce, heartache and death but the love between
them never died.
DiMaggio and Monroe first meet in 1952, shortly after
DiMaggio retired from the New York Yankees. At 25, Marilyn was just begging her
career. On January 14th, 1954 Joe and Marilyn eloped in San
Francisco. While the marriage would not last the year, the love story would
last another 45 years, until DiMaggio’s final words, “I’ll finally get to see
Marilyn again.”
Within weeks of the divorce, Marilyn and DiMaggio would be
seen out together. Weeks after Marilyn filed for divorce, she had surgery. It
was DiMaggio who took her to the hospital, stayed by her side during her stay
and cared for her during her recuperation once she was released. Shortly after,
Marilyn and DiMaggio were seen out celebrating DiMaggio’s 40th
birthday.
Monroe would remarry and divorce but her relationship with
DiMaggio continued to be a constant.
In 1961 Marilyn was forcibly institutionalized due to her
paranoid schizophrenia, a disease her mother had suffered from. It was DiMaggio
whom she called for help and he instantly came to her rescue. He arrangement
her release and moved her to a hospital. After the event, Marilyn would refer
to him as “my hero”, even when introducing him to others.
Monroe died August 5th, 1962 at 36 years old. Even
after her death DiMaggio was there to care for her. He identified her body,
arranged the funeral and although he would never go to her grave again, he had roses delivered twice a
week to her crypt until his death in 1999, a wish she had share with him years
before. Thirty seven years after her death, DiMaggio never remarried and never
forgot Marilyn, even on his death bed.
“I’ll finally get to see Marilyn again.”
*Photos curtesy of http://www.biography.com/people/marilyn-monroe-9412123#image-by-andy-warhol
