Wisconsin Life

The woman living at Taliesin

Minerva Montooth: They all studied Frank Lloyd Wright. It was really a school. That’s what Mr. Wright started it as.

Angela Fitzgerald: Meet Minerva Montooth. She is 101 years old. And yet, the most surprising thing about her is not her age. It’s her address.

Minerva Montooth: I think I lucked out.

Angela Fitzgerald: Minerva lives at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. And as one of the last living apprentices who worked alongside Mr. Wright, she is surrounded each day by the memories of their time together.

Margo: Daddy’s smiling. There’s a picture of you and Mrs. Wright.

Minerva Montooth: We were all apprentices. I remember very well helping build the theater, which is where Mr. Wright suggested we had our wedding, which we did.

Angela Fitzgerald: Minerva met Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife, Olgivanna, through her childhood friend and eventual husband, Charles Montooth.

Minerva Montooth: Charles was a very good architect. I didn’t know what an architect was. You know, a farm community, they just all built their houses themselves. [chuckles]

Angela Fitzgerald: Minerva grew up on a dairy farm. She and her sister graduated top of their class, guaranteeing scholarships for college. It didn’t take long for her to seek new horizons.

Minerva Montooth: I went to Chicago, so I worked for the Encyclopedia of Britannica doing research. And then I got bored with a little city like Chicago. I wanted the big lights. [chuckles] So I went to New York. I was the specialized librarian for the advertising agency. My office was right over Fifth Avenue, and I just looked down, and there was the whole city. And so it was a pretty glamorous job.

Angela Fitzgerald: Minerva’s career took a turn when she followed her sister for a trip out to Arizona, where an old childhood friend, Charles Montooth, had been studying under Frank Lloyd Wright. So began years of visiting Charles in the desert.

Minerva Montooth: Charles had been asking me to marry him for five years. And so, anyway, I finally said yes.

Angela Fitzgerald: Minerva’s shy outer shell began to melt away.

Minerva Montooth: I mean, my sister and I were so shy, twin sister. I tell you, it was pathological shyness, but I got over it in one day, meeting Mr. and Mrs. Wright.

Angela Fitzgerald: To escape the hardships of winter, the young aspiring architects studying in Spring Green would caravan to Arizona. Charles and Minerva had their home base in the desert, where Minerva raised three children.

Minerva Montooth: We lived for 10 years in a little house that Charles built, which was so cute. He built it by hand, all glass doors. At first it was very small, and then just gradually he would add bedrooms. So it got to be a five-bedroom house, I think, when we had three children.

Angela Fitzgerald: Minerva played an increasingly important role, not only in her own family, but to the Wrights and eventually their foundation.

Minerva Montooth: Having Mr. Wright speak to me on a very familiar level, I mean, we just were friends for the moment we met.

Angela Fitzgerald: In 1959, Olgivanna assumed the role of president of the Foundation, and Minerva began to serve as her assistant.

Minerva Montooth: Assistant to Mrs. Wright, that’s what she called me. She was like Mr. Wright. She had an idea, and she wanted it right now. I was there for 25 years.

Angela Fitzgerald: Between Taliesin West, Spring Green, and sometimes international business.

Minerva Montooth: We went to South Africa. And Europe many summers.

Angela Fitzgerald: Decades later, Minerva is the last living fellow that spent time with the original apprenticeship.

Minerva Montooth: Absolutely incredible that I was ever here, that I was ever married to Charles, that I was ever with Mrs. Wright so long, and that I’m here still. It’s just, all of it is unbelievable.

Angela Fitzgerald: And going to great-grandma’s house is a little extra special.

Minerva Montooth: I’m in awe that I live here. Really, I can’t believe it. And I’m very thankful for all of it. [gentle piano music]