Pat Montandon hosting “The Prize Movie” in 1966.

Legendary San Francisco socialite, TV host and columnist Pat Montandon has died at the age of 96, her son Sean Wilsey announced this week.

In the 1960s, while living in a notorious house on Lombard Street that she would later claim was cursed, Montandon was a familiar face to San Franciscans. The city knew her under several guises: author, gossip columnist, activist, party girl, friend of the stars and TV personality. As CBS host Jack Hanson once told her, “You’re one of those people who just seems to be famous.” 

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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.

Though Montandon’s fame never went global, she........

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