According to the Merced (CA) Sun-Star of May 4, 1921, as Marie Posenor, Pavis married her first husband, Broadway promoter John William (Jack) Murray, in New York in 1915. He paid for the wedding ring, the ceremony, and a subsequent wedding dinner with bad checks. She left him two months later and moved to Los Angeles. In 1919, while there, she unsuccessfully filed for divorce. Later, in 1921, it became known that Murray had subsequently committed bigamy with two other women in 1918 and 1920. At that point, all three women sued Murray.