Comments (0) Best Comeback by a Socialite - 2006

Pat Montandon

Sure, the tirelessly blond Dede Wilsey made headlines over the past year: Her fundraising helped open San Francisco's ode to a rusty nail, the de Young Museum, and she appeared in many dull society pages and graced the cover of a particularly Vanity Fair-esque cover of 7x7, for, well, being filthy rich. But the socialite we all wondered about and championed was Pat Montandon. Raised from humble beginnings in Waurika, Okla., by Texan ministers, she built a name for herself in San Francisco society as a sophisticated and intelligent party gal in the 1960s, feted a wide array of luminaries, and even hosted her own TV talk show. Then her powerful husband divorced her and remarried her then-best friend, Wilsey. Montandon's name was arguably tarnished by the likes of Herb Caen and Armistead Maupin. Although she became the black sheep of San Francisco's arrogant society circles, she did manage to score a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for her quirky charity troupe "Children as Teachers of Peace." But after her son, Sean Wilsey, published a fascinating and rather tasty tell-all about his mother (as well as S.F. society itself) last year, Oh the Glory of It All, the spotlight was rightfully back on Pat. Let's hope we hear more from her in the year to come.