Marilyn Monroe's Personally Owned Black Velvet Cocktail Dress From the Collection of Bebe Goddard W/LOA - This lovely black cocktail dress was personally owned by Marilyn Monroe. The gown is made of black velvet with rhinestones and faux pearls on the collar and chest. The gown comes with a letter of authenticity from Eleanor "Bebe" Goddard, who was known as the foster sister and teenage friend of a young Norma Jean Baker, as Marilyn was known at the time. Goddard and Monroe met and became friends after each had been in a series of foster homes, and they later spent several of their teenage years in the Van Nuys home of Goddard's father and his new wife Grace who was a close friend of Marilyn's institutionalized mother. The letter states in part, "Marilyn had given me this dress along with other items of clothing and jewelry one day while I was visiting her at her apartment in Hollywood. She knew I had not much in the way of fancy clothes and wanted me to have some of her things."