Born Mary Jo Campbell on July 26, 1934, the Arkansas native had already gone through a divorce with her high school sweetheart before marrying Kris’ dad Robert True “Bob” Houghton in 1954.
As she once candidly put it of her first marriage, “I just thought, ‘You know what? This isn’t really that much fun,’ so I got out of it.’“
“And you try to stay in there for a month or so and really try hard, and you just can’t,” MJ continued in a 2017 video with her granddaughter Kim. “You think, ‘I shouldn’t waste his time.’”
MJ gave birth to Kris in 1955, before breaking up with Bob seven years later. She went on to marry businessman Harry Shannon, who was a father figure to Kris and her younger sister Karen Houghton until his death in 2003.
At the time, MJ ran a kids’ clothing store in San Diego.
“My dad was in a car accident in 2003, and when he was in the hospital, my mom wanted to close the store, but I said I would run it for her,” Kris recalled in a 2015 interview with Haute Living. “I was exhausted trying to make it all work from San Diego, but I knew my mom and dad needed me.”
Harry died from a staph infection he contracted while hospitalized, which Kris recalled was “so devastating” to the family.
