Cousin Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe, it has now been shown, was connected to another American president apart from John F Kennedy to whom she sang Happy Birthday. The life and death of Marilyn Monroe were always more poignant than a flash of celebrity for a mere sex-kitten. Now genetics has proved her to be a true Monroe of Clan Munro, related to the fifth president of America, James Monroe, inventor of the foreign policy doctrine. More excitingly, at least for a man in Birmingham, is the discovery she has living kinsmen in Britain. There must be more. It seems Marilyn’s forebears were among loyal Scots deported to America after their defeat in rallying to Charles II at the battle of Worcester in 1651. Marilyn Monroe visited Britain in 1956, hardly straying beyond Surrey, and sadly never visited the land of her ancestors.