Marilyn Monroe Post Office? Rep tries again to rename California building

The Civic Center Van Nuys Post Office could easily be named for a homegrown Hollywood star like Robert Redford, Natalie Wood or Jane Russell.

But U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas is trying for the second time to rename it after bombshell Marilyn Monroe, once a student at Van Nuys High School.

“Marilyn is an idol for a lot of young girls, actors and actresses,” said Cardenas, D-Panorama City. “We got the idea from the community to name it after her. We think it’s a great idea and are happy to move it along.”

With support of nearly the entire California House delegation, the bill to name the Civic Center Van Nuys Post Office at 6531 Van Nuys Blvd. after one of America’s best known sex symbols could pass by November 2016, aides say.

The bill, H.R. 3938, was submitted Thursday to a government reform committee. A full House vote is expected next year. A similar bill submitted three years ago failed to get out of the committee.

The idea to name the post office after Monroe was hatched in three years ago by the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council.

Fifteen-year-old Norma Jeane Mortenson, who became Monroe, attended Van Nuys High for more than half her sophomore year, between fall 1941 and spring 1942. She lived with an aunt after a childhood spent in foster homes.

She would become a pin-up model and star in 29 films. She also had three husbands, including James Dougherty, baseball great Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. She died in 1962.

A backyard home in North Hollywood, where Monroe lived when discovered as a model, was bulldozed last June, three days before a city hearing on its potential preservation. She had lived there in 1944 with her in-laws while her first husband was away at sea.

Van Nuys Neighborhood Council President George Thomas once said Monroe’s link to Van Nuys was important because the actress said it was the happiest time of her life.

“Marilyn Monroe is an American icon, and renaming the post office after her is going to be a part of our ongoing efforts to bring light to the history of Van Nuys,” Thomas told the Daily News in 2012. “Our community has a rich heritage of which many Valley-ites are unaware.”

The Civic Center Van Nuys Post Office was moved to its current location a few years ago from 6200 Van Nuys Blvd, postal officials said.

Other post offices dedicated to celebrities include one in Burbank dedicated to comedian Bob Hope, a Hollywood post office dedicated to its honorary mayor Johnny Grant, and three Los Angeles post offices respectively named for actor Karl Malden, singer Ray Charles and singer Nat King Cole.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 3:05 AM with the headline "Marilyn Monroe Post Office? Rep tries again to rename California building."