"Born in Texas in 1928, Montandon grew up in Oklahoma as one of eight children of an impoverished preacher during the Great Depression. In 1960, she moved to San Francisco with $400 to her name and got a job working at the high-end Union Square department store I. Magnin. The stunning, vivacious blonde soon became part of the cocktail party scene. The papers adored her, regularly running photos of Montandon at high-society dos and referring to her as a socialite."
"Outside of her San Francisco Examiner column and her daily KGO spot "Prize Movie" - on which she would critique a film, cook breakfast, get on the phone with San Franciscans and comment on all things celebrity and society - Montandon was known as the hostess of extravagant themed roundtable luncheons at her lavish Russian Hill pad. The parties drew the likes of Andy Warhol, Danielle Steel,"
Pat Montandon, a San Francisco socialite, television host and columnist, died at 96, announced by her son Sean Wilsey. Born in Texas in 1928 and raised in Oklahoma among eight children of an impoverished preacher, she moved to San Francisco in 1960 with $400 and worked at I. Magnin. She became a fixture of the city's cocktail-party scene, writing a society column and hosting a daily KGO segment "Prize Movie." She hosted lavish themed luncheons in Russian Hill attended by celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Danielle Steel and Frank Sinatra, and inspired a character in Tales of the City.
Read at SFGATE
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