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Last living Marilyn Monroe husband dies in Calif

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 14:28 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - James Dougherty, the first and last surviving husband of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, has died in California, a relative said on Wednesday.

Dougherty, 84, a retired Los Angeles detective and former local politician in Maine, died on Monday in San Rafael, California, north of San Francisco, his stepdaughter Annie Woods said by telephone.

Dougherty married 16-year-old Norma Jeane Baker in 1942, midway through World War II. His mother was good friends with Baker's foster mother.

During their four-year union, Dougherty joined the Merchant Marine and eventually went to China. Baker -- who had her picture taken by a military photographer while she was working on a military assembly line -- set her sights on Hollywood and changed her name. Monroe died in 1962.

Dougherty had a 25-year career at the Los Angeles Police Department and moved to Arizona after his retirement in 1974. He later settled in Maine, where he was a county commissioner and taught at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

In 1997, he co-wrote a book titled "To Norma Jeane with Love, Jimmie." He was also the subject of a documentary last year, "Marilyn's Man."

Dougherty had three children with his second wife. His third wife died in 2003 after 32 years of marriage, according to his Web site.

Monroe married three times during her life. Her spouses were Dougherty, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, who died in 1999, and playwright Arthur Miller, who died earlier this year.

Source: REUTERS

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