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The glamorous movie star and the baseball superstar: Norma Jean and the Yankee Clipper looked great in the photos, but Marilyn and Joe were married for only nine months. Apparently, it was long enough for DiMaggio to remain devoted to her memory years after her death. We went to the Yahoo! directory category for Marilyn Monroe. On the official Marilyn Monroe site we learned that Marilyn passed away on August 4, 1962, at the age of 36, and was buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles. We couldn't find an official site for the cemetery, but we located a picture of her
crypt and a short description of her final resting place. We went off in search of more information about DiMaggio and Monroe. On the Marilyn Pages we first learned that Marilyn and Joltin' Joe were planning to remarry just a few days before her tragic death. We also found out that DiMaggio took care of the funeral arrangements and made sure it was a quiet memorial for close friends and relatives, barring press and celebrities. Though the site didn't mention visits to the cemetery, it did state that he ordered flowers for her crypt, once or twice a week, for over 20 years. To discover how often DiMaggio visited Marilyn's grave, we visited the Joe DiMaggio category. At Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, (companion site to PBS's television show, The American Experience), we found an interesting account of DiMaggio's role at Marilyn's funeral, and an indication that he did indeed visit Marilyn's grave. An actor friend states:
I firmly believe... that all the years that [DiMaggio] made those visitations to her grave site and left flowers. . . he was still in love with her. While we could not confirm that Joe DiMaggio visited Marilyn's grave every anniversary, we did find
signs of his very private attachment to her memory. His New York Times' obituary mentions that he refused many offers to write his autobiography, so that he wouldn't have to publicly discuss his relationship with Marilyn Monroe. Despite their short marriage, DiMaggio's love for Marilyn seemed undying.
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