Born in Chicago and raised in San Francisco, Charles Gilman Norris was the son of a wealthy business-oriented jeweler and a socially conscious matron and amateur actress, Gertrude Doggett Norris, who became president of the Browning Society of San Francisco. Mr. Norris walked out on his family when Charles was eleven, later sued for divorce and remarried, and at his death created a financial hardship in his first household by bequeathing his fortune to his second wife. Mrs. Norris devoted most of her attention to Frank Norris and his career until her first son's death in 1902 left Charles her only surviving offspring. Although he felt rejected by a mother who admittedly had not wanted him, signaling her rejection by arbitrarily christening him with the name of her attending physician (Charles Gilman Smith), she had grown possessive enough by the time of Charles's marriage to insist on reading to Charles and Kathleen from Kipling and Frank Norris every night of their two-week honeymoon. That Charles and Kathleen Norris's marriage lasted from 1909 until Charles's death thirty-six years later was due largely to their mutual devotion and respect, as well as to Kathleen Norris's tact.
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