{"id":16181,"date":"2020-10-11T16:45:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T20:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=16181"},"modified":"2020-10-17T17:44:12","modified_gmt":"2020-10-17T21:44:12","slug":"mary-charlene-glass-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mary-charlene-glass-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Who is Mary Charlene in <em>The Glass Castle<\/em>? How did Mary Charlene&#8217;s death shape the family&#8217;s story? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mary Charlene in <em>The Glass Castle<\/em> was the second child of Rex and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rose-mary-walls\/\">Rose Mary Walls<\/a>. Mary Charlene died at nine months old, and her death profoundly affected both parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Mary Charlene in <em>The Glass Castle<\/em> and the rest of the Walls family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Walls Family Origins<\/strong>: Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeannette didn\u2019t know much about her father\u2019s past. He never liked to talk about his upbringing in Welch, West Virginia or his parents. All she knew was that Rex left home when he was seventeen to join the Air Force.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Rex met Rose Mary, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he\u2019d ever seen. The day he met her, he said they were going to get married. Rose Mary was coy at first, stating that twenty-three men had already tried to marry her, but Rex was persistent. He wore her down until she said yes, and they were married six months later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lori was conceived a few months after the wedding. <strong>A year later, their second child, Mary Charlene, was born but died nine months later from sudden infant death syndrome.<\/strong> Two years after Mary Charlene\u2019s death, Jeannette was born. Rose Mary called her the replacement child. Brian came along a year later. He was born in mid-seizure and couldn\u2019t breathe. Rose Mary said he was likely a \u201cgoner,\u201d but Brian lived, and the seizures stopped.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rose Mary never showed much emotion about Mary Charlene in <em>The Glass Castle<\/em>. She said it was God\u2019s decision, and he\u2019d had his reasons for taking her back. But Rex was a different story. Rex was the one who\u2019d found her dead in the crib, and whenever her name came up, he\u2019d leave the room. <strong>After her death, Rex changed. He started drinking, became moody, and started to get fired from every job he got.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At one point, Rex sold Rose Mary\u2019s diamond wedding ring for cash without telling her. The stone was big, and Rose Mary\u2019s mother, Grandma Smith, had paid for it. After that, Rose Mary brought the stolen ring up whenever she was angry with Rex. But Rex said he would buy her a bigger ring as soon as they were rich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle? How did Mary Charlene&#8217;s death shape the family&#8217;s story? Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle was the second child of Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Mary Charlene died at nine months old, and her death profoundly affected both parents. Read more about Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle and the rest of the Walls family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,33,12],"tags":[134],"class_list":["post-16181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-people","category-relationships","tag-the-glass-castle","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who is Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who was Mary Charlene in The Glass Castle? The second child of Rose Mary and Rex, Mary Charlene died tragically as a baby. 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