Exquisite vintage sepia matte-finish 8 x 10 portrait of the luminous, fresh-faced Monroe, signed and inscribed in ink, “To My Darling Grammy, Always Lovingly, Your Norma Jeane.” Accompanied by a photocopy of a letter which explains the provenance of the photo, in part: “What I know about this picture of ‘Young Marilyn’ is that she and my late husband’s father were raised together for a number of years in San Fernando … His name was Jack Monroe, and as I understand it, her mother was his aunt, which would make them first cousins.… Jack was living in the Napa Valley when his grandmother passed…where Jack ended up with this picture among other precious possessions of his grandmother’s,” then the postscript, “My husband's name was David Monroe!” In 1946, Norma Jeane began using the stage name Marilyn Monroe, but did not legally change her name until February 23, 1956. As Marilyn's own “Grammy”-maternal grandmother Della Mae Hogan-died in 1927, when Marilyn was a year old, the person to whom this photo is inscribed remains an intriguing mystery. It seems very likely that, given the early date and the implied intimacy of “Grammy,” it was one of Marilyn's early female caretakers, or perhaps an older member of one of their immediate families: Ida Bolender, Grace McKee Goddard, “Mrs. Dewey” of the Los Angeles Orphans' Home, or Ana Lower. Indeed, an extant photo dating to Marilyn's late teenage years shows her together with Lower, who, born in 1880, certainly looks grandmotherly. Further research may well produce a positive identification. In fine condition, with light creases to lower left corner area, a couple areas of minor discoloration in the margins, and moderate contrast to a portion of the signature against the dark background. COA PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
