Name Montgomery H Colladay
Event Type Marriage
Event Date 23 Dec 1927
Event Place Florida, United States
Spouse's Name Nina Grace Ramsay
Page 7694
Citing this Record "Florida Marriages, 1830-1993", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRC5-5SR : 25 June 2015), Montgomery H Colladay and Nina Grace Ramsay, 1927.
The Arizona Republic - Phoenix,
Worldly pair settle in Sedona By MARGARET THOMAS
Where does a pair come to roost after a life In the foreign service where the world's finest talents were always near? Nina Grace and Montgomery H. Colladay, after more than 25 years in consulates of the major capitals of Europe, have settled in Sedona, where they are busy with cultural events. Mrs. Colladay is busy currently with plans for the second Sedona Fine Arts Festival. Now in its second year, it will be dedicated to a former resident of Sedona, the late Col. Clarence Young, known to many as father of civil aviation. The late colonel's wife is Lois Moran, retired Broadway star and author of "Down at the Barn," a column for the Sedona paper. THE COLLADAYS dropped Into Phoenix recently to talk about the coming festival, which Colladay described: "It Is small, but it's well - balanced. We have two matinees for children." As festival chairman, Mrs. Colladay has done all the planning, selected and signed the talent, handled the publicity, raised the money. All performances will be In Sedona Art Barn and will Include: June 22, Phoenix Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Dur-and as conductor and solo pianist; June 23, An Appalachian Celebration featuring Jim Connor (former member of the Kingston Trio) and his wife Julie plus dancers Jerry Duke and Robin Hendell; June 29, pianist Eugene Pridonoff; and June 30, "A Thurber Carnival" by Scottsdale Theater for Children. The two matinees will include the Connor program, 2:30 p.m., June 23 and "Tara Diddle Travels" at 2:30 p.m., June 30, by Scotts dale Theater for Children. A RECEPTION will follow each 8 p.m. performance and tickets at $2 each may be obtained at The Village Shop or at the door. ' Colladay was special officer to the seven Allied governments serving under Angier Biddle Duke. These were war years and he sent his family to Santa Barbara, Calif., to stay. As soon as possible, she joined her husband in England. "I arrived with the V-2's," she recalled, "just before the end of the war. Then in '45 we went to Dublin and our British friends who came to visit couldn't believe the huge roasts, the marvelous thick cream. They couldn't eat it after six years of austerity. "We will never forget our trip to Ireland, our ship zigzagging to avoid German U-boats." After years that took him from positions as secretary to consul general, they retired to San Diego and found it too crowded. The pair discovered Sedona two years ago and loved it. Nina Grace Colladay is so busy with volunteer work that she's put aside her work as a sculptor temporarily. "We are so involved in the art center, I scarcely have time to keep up my piano." COLLADAY FILLS the role of executive vice president of the Art Barn Corp., has learned to do lighting for their stage productions and art shows. He proudly pointed out: ' We volunteers built the addition ourselves with the help of plans by a contractor." Both the Colladays grew up In New England. Her interest In piano dates back to her first lessons at 7 years of age. She grew up in Concord, N.H., went off to college at Columbia University, where she majored in humanities. Interest in languages (French and Spanish) led her to the University of Madrid and travels about Spain with friends in the American embassy. She returned to Columbia for her senior year and degree, then went to Florida for her first job. In Florida, she met and fell in love with a young Dartmouth College graduate who had just spent some time traveling In Europe. A native of Middletown, Conn., and son of an Episcopal dean, Colladay also had been bitten by the travel bug. The two put their heads together, decided this would be their life. After a year's training in Washington, D.C., in 1930 he was commissioned in the foreign service and their first tour took them to Warsaw, Poland, where their twins were born five months later. Mrs. Colladay recalls that occasion with astonishment yet, for their twin daughters were placed on boards and wrapped in swaddling clothes, literally bound in linen. It was to protect their backs from breaking, she was told by her nurse. TOURS OF DUTY that followed took them to Switzerland, then Estonia which they described as their most exciting stop. Estonia was their station when the Russians invaded in September 1940. By this time they had a third child, but with bag and baggage and daughters, they made their way across Europe via Berlin, by bus to Geneva to the Spanish borders. Germans had blown up bridges. It took them five weeks to get home with reservations available only because they carried diplomatic passports. Winnipeg duty followed, then two years In London, where His other "chores" have included locating a harpsichord...Their Sedona home is far enough away and near revisits with their three daughters. One is now married to a neuropsychologist who teaches at the University of Texns Medical School at Galveston, another to a professor at Clnre-mont College in California, and a third to a businessman in Denver. When they aren't busy learning new things about how theater and concerts tick, the pair takes off In their 24 foot trailer for winter holidays in Mexico and opera in summer at Santa Fe, filling their days with things they enjoy the most, travel, art, music. spectator sports.