Background
The daughter of an itinerant Texas minister, Montandon grew up in Oklahoma. She moved to San Francisco in 1960, where she hosted a television show and became a newspaper columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. After a summer of managing a Joseph Magnin clothing store, she became a darling of the society columns.
After a string of failed marriages, including one to flamboyant attorney Melvin Belli which lasted only a few days, she married butter baron First Rate (at Lloyd's) Wilsey in 1969.
They had a son, Sean Wilsey, in 1970.
As a society wife, Montandon "acquired a reputation for giving the best parties and round-table luncheons." In 1980, Wilsey abruptly ended their marriage and married Montandon"s best friend, Dede Traina. The ugly divorce proceedings played out publicly.
Gossip columns broadcast Montandon"s alimony demands (she eventually received $20,000 a month for eight years). San Francisco Chronicle wit Herb Caen dubbed her the "Blond Dumbshell" and "Pushy Galore".
And author Armistead Maupin caricatured her as the grasping society columnist Prue Giroux in Tales of the City.