Ludger “Lud” Richard Camp died at home on April 13 in La Jolla, San Diego, after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, reports La Jolla Patch. He was 83.
While still a teenager, Camp encountered the young Norma Jeane Dougherty, then living with her Merchant Marine husband, Jim, on Catalina Island:
‘“At 16, during the early years of World War II, he left school to enlist in the Army Air Corps,” said the obituary. “He became one of the highest ranked trainees in Texas. However, he was honorably discharged when it was discovered that he was underage.
“Mr. Camp then enlisted in the Merchant Marines where he was sent to Catalina Island. He loved to tell friends about his difficulty concentrating on exercise because Norma Jean Baker, (later Marilyn Monroe) would saunter by in the afternoons.”’