Rasmussen AnneMarie

Norwegian-American news figure and artist. Blue-eyed, flaxen-haired, the daughter of a prosperous grocer, she was raised in Norway. At 18 she moved to New York by herself, taking a job as a kitchen maid for the Rockefellers. In traditional story-book fashion, she fell in love with the second son in the family, Steven, and they married in a posh, society wedding on 8/22/1959, Sogne, Norway. The marriage lasted through ten years and three kids. Rasmussen was so troubled with depression that in the mid-70s the kids went to live with their dad while their mom had three nervous breakdowns. She briefly attempted another marriage, to a Norwegian-American businessman. About 1978 a doctor prescribed Lithium and it changed her life. She emerged as a serious artist, working from pen and ink drawings to collages and some photography. She signs herself MIA, her nickname, selling her work for $200 to $700. In 1975 she published an autobiography "There Was Once a Time." Read less