Rosalie Jean Willis worked as a waitress, but she is best known as the eldest wife of notorious cult leader Charles Manson. Along with the burden of being the wife of her monstrous husband, she also had to endure the death of all 3 children before she could rest in peace.
Rosalie Jean Willis was the first wife of Charles Manson
Rosalie Jean Willis, as stated earlier, was the first wife of American criminal Charles Manson. She was born in the United States on January 28, 1937. Clarence Willis and Virginia McNich raised her as their daughter. Rosalie, the third of her parents’ four children, had a very ordinary upbringing.
She spent most of her childhood in Benwood, West Virginia, with her parents and siblings. The 84-year-old has two older sisters, Amy and Eileen, as well as an older brother, Clarence “Buster” Willis.
Unfortunately, neither her parents nor her siblings are alive. Rosalie’s ethnicity is white and she holds American citizenship.
Rosalie Jean Willis married Charles Manson when she was 15 years old
On January 7, 1955, Rosalie Jean Willis married Charles Manson. Their wedding was held at the Church of the Nazarene in a private ceremony attended by close friends and family. The most intriguing aspect is that Rosalie was just a 15-year-old teenager when she married Manson, who at the time was said to be 20 years old.
The former couple first met at a hospital where Willis was working as a waitress. Their meeting happened by chance when Charles, a part-time auto mechanic and car thief, had to move to Charleston, West Virginia, with his mother Kathleen Maddox. Maddox happened to befriend Rosalie’s father there, laying the groundwork for a scandalous marriage.
The most fascinating fact, however, is that Willis married Manson despite knowing he was a thief. Her hope that she could change him after marriage proved to be an unattainable goal. As a result, three years after her marriage, in 1958, she filed for divorce, which was finalized the same year.
Her son with Manson committed suicide
Rosalie Jean Willis gave birth to Charles Manson Jr. in 1956 after a three-year marriage to Charles. When Charles was sentenced at Terminal Island Prison in San Pedro, California, for smuggling a stolen car across the border, she was only about three months pregnant.
While her husband was away, she took care of the child alone until his mother arrived. Willis married another man and moved to another city when her children grew up. On the other hand, her eldest son was unable to overcome the stigma of being the son of a criminal.
He ended up shooting himself in the head at the age of 37.
She married twice after her divorce from Charles .
Rosalie wasn’t just Charles’s wife. She married twice after divorcing him. She married a second time to a man named Jack White. Although she did not specify when she married Jack, they are said to have had a good but short-lived relationship. They divorced amicably in 1965.
She has two children as a result of their marriage. Her first child, Jesse J. White, was born in 1958 and her second child was born in 1959.
Willis married Warren Howard “Jack” Handley for the third time after divorcing her second husband. They had a good relationship, but it wouldn’t last long. Things take a turn for the worse for her when she has to watch all her children die right in front of her eyes.
Rosalie Jean Willis’s three children all died unnaturally
It’s hard to imagine the pain Rosalie must have endured, but she did. Rosalie had to witness the deaths of all the children in her life. In addition to the death of Charles Manson Jr., whom she renamed Jay White (after her second husband), her children from her second marriage also died.
Tragedy began in January 1971, with the death of her 11-year-old son Jed. His death was attributed to an accident in which her friend shot him in the gut while they were playing.
Similarly, her second child, Jesse, was found dead in a car at the age of 28. According to reports, he and a friend were drinking at a bar in Houston, Texas, on the night of his death. . His death was attributed to a drug overdose.
What happened to Rosalie Jean Willis? Her death
Rosalie is no longer among us. She died on August 21, 2009, nearly 11 years after her third husband’s death in 1998, according to Find a Grave. She is believed to have died from complications from lung cancer. She was at her home in Tucson, Arizona, when she passed away. Rosalie was 71 years old at the time. She is laid to rest at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, Clark County, Nevada.
About her first husband, Charles Manson, he died on November 19, 2017, aged 83, in Bakersfield, California.
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