One afternoon, in the middle of what must have been a full-force episode of paranoia, Gladys pounded
on the front door of the Bolender home. The daughters of a friend of Ida’s from church—both
interviewed for this book—explained for the first time the exchange that occurred, as described to them
by their mother:
“Where’s Norma Jeane?” Gladys demanded, pushing past Ida.
“What is it, Gladys?” Ida replied, regarding her carefully. “What’s happened?”
Gladys said that Norma Jeane could no longer stay at the Bo-lenders’. She had come to take her, she
insisted, as her eyes darted about the small home. It was impossible to reason with her. Ida told her that
she wasn’t making any sense and suggested that she sit down and talk to her. However, Gladys was
adamant. With her eyes flashing, she cried out again that Norma Jeane was her daughter and that she
was taking her home. Ida grabbed Gladys’s arm, delaying her momentarily. “This is her home,” she
told her. “We just haven’t made it official yet… but once we get the adoption papers together…”
Gladys then insisted that there would never be an adoption. Norma Jeane was hers, she said, not Ida’s.
With that, she yanked herself free and ran to the backyard, where the three-year-old was playing with a
dog that had followed Wayne home one day and whom Norma Jeane had named Tippy. Ida followed
Gladys into the backyard, begging her to come to her senses. However, Gladys insisted that she was
only taking what was rightfully hers. Then she scooped up a now crying Norma Jeane and said,
“You’re coming with Mommy, sweetheart.”
According to the story passed down a generation, there was mayhem—a barking dog, a weeping child,
and Ida pulling at Gladys in an effort to save a little girl from a confused, possibly dangerous woman.
Still tussling as they got to the kitchen, Gladys managed to push Ida outside, slamming the back door
and quickly locking it.
Frantic, Ida pounded on the door. Then she tried to force it open with all her weight. After a few
moments of futile effort, she ran down the driveway, around the house, and entered her home through
the front door. By this time, she was out of breath, panting. She listened for a moment. Nothing.
Ida then ran back out the door again to see if Gladys had somehow made it out to the sidewalk in front
of the house. Once outside, she looked both ways down the street—no one was in sight. At a loss, she
was about to burst into tears when suddenly the front door flew open. It was Gladys, her face now
flushed and red.
Then Ida heard the muffled screams of Norma Jeane. To Ida’s horror, Gladys had managed to stuff the
child into a large military duffel bag that Wayne Bolender had used to store his tools. The bag hung on
her shoulder, completely zipped shut. Gladys, now moving clumsily with her awkward baggage,
attempted to cross the lawn. Ida grabbed one of the handles of the canvas sack and tried to free it from
Gladys’s grip. This bizarre tug-of-war would last only moments, ending with the bag splitting open and
the helpless Norma Jeane tumbling onto the ground. Norma Jeane’s weeping ceased for a moment
before she finally screamed out, “Mommy!” Both women turned and looked down at the child, whose
arms were now outstretched—in Ida’s direction. Ida whipped the child quickly up into her arms and ran
inside the house, locking the door behind her.
Now inside, an extremely shaken Ida Bolender stood in a doorway to the kitchen. Clinging to little
Norma Jeane with everything she had, she kept her eyes on the front door, all the while ready to run out
the back if Gladys tried to get into the house. All she could hear was the child’s whimpering as she
watched the front doorknob turn slightly back and forth. Gladys could not get into the house. Ida spent
the next few minutes peeking out various windows as Gladys circled the house, muttering to herself
and occasionally trying to open a window or a door. Finally, Ida screwed up enough courage to shout
through a closed window, “I’ve called the police! They’ll be here shortly!”
With the now quiet Norma Jeane still in her arms, Ida Bolender listened. There was silence. Gladys
Baker had disappeared just as abruptly as she had arrived.
Ida Wants to Adopt Norma Jeane