Her mother (who later became a patient in a mental hospital) wasn't able to combine earning a living and raising a child. Unable to manage, she sent Marilyn to live with a foster family who lived near her grandmother. Marilyn would spend the first seven years of her life with this foster family.

The idea that Marilyn would be better off being close to her grandmother was a big mistake. Marilyn would retain only one memory of her Grandmother: that she tried to suffocate her as a baby. She probably did make the attempt. For within two months of Marilyn's first birthday, her Grandmother was committed to Norwalk Mental Hospital.

Marilyn's mother visited her every weekend, promising to one day buy a home for the two of them. Her mother scrimped and saved, working extra shifts at her place of employment until finally, she made a down payment on a small house. She bought some furniture and fetched Marilyn. In the autumn of 1933, Marilyn left the foster home and entered into the glamour of Hollywood forever.

June 1, 1934, Marilyn celebrated her eighth birthday. The occasion was a double celebration: it was the first birthday to be spent with her mother and it began summer vacation from school. When Marilyn Monroe would recall happy memories as well as horror stories from her childhood in later years, it was that summer she remembered.

There is one incident in the childhood of Marilyn dated at about this time: the claim by that she was raped (or molested) at age eight and a half to nine years. Here is Marilyn's vivid recollection of the most traumatic episode of her childhood: "One day I found out about sex without asking any questions. I was almost nine (late 1934, early 1935,) and I lived with a family that rented a room to a man named Kimmel. He was a stern-looking man and everybody respected and called him Mr. Kimmel."