Margaret "Polly" Grubb
From End The Cult
Margaret "Polly" Grubb (b. ?, d. 1961) was the first wife of L. Ron Hubbard from 1933 to 1947.
Hubbard met Grubb at a flight school in early 1933 and, after a brief courtship, married on April 13 of that year.
After a miscarriage, her second pregnancy with Hubbard bore a two-months premature L. Ron Hubbard Jr. in 1934, followed by Katherine May Hubbard in 1936.
In 1936, Grubb was suspicious of Hubbard's long absences and suspected he was having an affair. She found letters written by several women to Hubbard and confronted him about them. They remained together.citation needed
In 1941 Hubbard joined the Navy and Grubb saw very little of him. After the war ended his absences continued, and Grubb said she did not see Hubbard at all from 1945 and July 1947. During this time, Hubbard was living with Sara Northrup before illegally marrying her in 1946.
On April 14 1947, Grubb files for divorce on grounds of "desertion and non-support". In July, Hubbard agrees to the divorce and to pay $25 per child a month in support. The divorce is finalized on December 24th. During the course of the divorce, both Grubb and Northrup found out about each other's existence and Hubbard's bigamy.
March 1951, Grubb sued Hubbard for not paying required child support for 42 months. The following month, Northrup filed for divorce from Hubbard. Grubb wrote her a letter of support:
| If I can help in any way, I'd like to - you must get Alexis in your custody - Ron is not normal. I had hoped that you could straighten him out. Your charges probably sound fantastic to the average person - but I've been through it - the beatings, threats on my life, all the sadistic traits you charge - twelve years of it. | |
| Margaret "Polly" Grubb | |
While Grubb later remarried, she never seemed to have survived the trauma of being married to L. Ron Hubbard: she succumbed to alcoholism in 1963.
