Show n o 52 years o shared by pen pals By SUE CHASTAIN Newspapers Knight-Ridde- r Ride to fame over for former wife of star quarterback PHILADELPHIA — The relationship began as a whim but ended up stretching over half a century' it took a war to interrupt it Emily Logan and Marianne Herbst a housewife from Philadelphia and a housewife from Germany two women continents and cultures apart They lived through worldwide depressions By ENSIGN RITCHIE Sports and global upheavals but they wrote to each other of the commonplace events in their lives of birthday parties and ski vacations of gallbladder operations Editor The carousel ride wishes however — speed — that it was The ride has taken for Cass Montana is over She with considerable reduction in still in motion the former wife of San Francisco and Cass who grew up Cass Castillo in Salt Lake City and attended Weber State College “never went without” As a youth she lived comfortably but in no way could she be considered a “fast lane” traveler After graduating from Kearns High School and attending WSC for three years the opportunity to travel with the airlines popped up in 1973 “My mother worked for the Foreign Service and had lived and traveled all over the world 1 just had this travel thing in my blood” she said in a telephone interview O a Saturday evening in early December 1978 Cas was assigned to work a charter flight from Los Angeles to South Bend Ind The passengers were members of the Notre Dame football team which had been beaten in the final seconds that afternoon by Southern Cal in the season’s final game A member of that Irish team was quarterback Joe Montana “1 had never heard of him And not being that familiar with football I was surprised at the emotional strain that showed on his and his teammates’ faces after the very disappointing loss” Cass said “I thought he had a rather neat name and at first thought he was kidding when he said his name was Montana” Joe finished academic work for graduation later that December and in early 1979 moved to the Los Angeles area where Cass was based “We began dating heavily and in June (1979) bought a home together in Manhattan Beach” she said “When Joe started playing for the 49ers that fall we got an apartment in the Bay area and 1 commuted to Los Angeles Joe was the backup quarterback behind Steve DeBerg so wasn’t the big hero then” Joe moved into the starting job the following year and Cass tried to be in on the excitement at Candlestick Park by commuting from LA “Then came the whirlwind” she said of 1981 “We bought this new home and horse ranch in Woodside Then we’re married on July 1 Then the great Super Bowl season started It’s been a whirlwind ever since It hasn’t stopped yet” So hectic were the following months that she took leave from her airline job “The Super Bowl is won in January (1982) and we're off to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii From there we go to a safari in Africa and after coming back from there we’re invited to dinner at the White House “The White House thing was in conjunction with a visit by Italian government officials Tom Lasorda Perry Como and Frank Sinatra were there I guess they invited all the Italians they knew” she said Joe is Italian “To me it was the ultimate We had TV crews in our home every Sunday night since Joe did his weekly show from there He was invited to play in the and other tournaments and we had Crosby Pro-Abodyguards living in our home for several weeks when Joe had a threat on his life” she said “I guess I was having trouble seeing the forest for m in putting the long correspondence on a more personal basis “We knew a lot of things about each other but with a pen pal you’ve never met it’s hard to get very intimate” she said thoughtfully “You don’t really know her you don’t know how she reacts to things how she thinks” The women’s relationship began with little fanfare back in 1932 when Logan’s high school German teacher passed out names of students in Ger many who were studying English and suggested that a correspondence might v 1982 backstage after Joe had hosted the Bay Area Music Awards the trees there was so much going on Between January and June of 1983 it all started to crumble All that pressure and money started to pull at both of us People were pulling at Joe from all sides There was no privacy in our lives” They were officially separated in June n “I spent the 1983 season very and rein losses from the two major my life — cuperating Joe and getting off the carousel” she said “I must admit the loss of friends and activities has hurt It’s rather difficult watching everyone else I knew still going down the road to success and excitement I really disliked coming down off it “And the media has made it especially tough They (the media) are trying to make us look like we hate each other and that a great deal of animosity exists — and that isn’t so I’ve even seen me quoted in some of the scandal publications and this is the first interview I’ve had since long before the separation” “Not only that but I read these sensational articles about what Joe is doing and I become very sensitive We’re try ing to develop a good friendship and I think we’ve made a lot of progress But the media has got to leave us alone Divorce is bad enough But it becomes much worse when it’s capped off with fame and bad publicity” she said Now it’s time to pick up the pieces she said “Much of the hurt is gone but there is still the loneliness I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I’m a little thing I don’t want anyone poor poverty-stricke- n feeling sorry for me I’m getting my confidence back so am getting my feet back on the ground I’m trying to look forward and not back” What about the future? “That will depend on the financial settlement which has not been decided yet Until then I’ll just keep on flying” she said In the meantime Cass is living comfortably in her Woodside ranch house Outside are two Arabian horses two German Shepherds and two miniature dachshunds Inside are a couple of Himalayan cats “We live well as a family I have people who help with them (the animals) while I’m flying But when I’m home I like to be alone with them” she said Cass still wishes she was on the carousel “But I’d like it slowed down several notches” for a San Francisco photographer in March heart-broke- improve language skills on both sides “I Was 18 — it was just something to do something different” recalled Logan “I had no idea” All she knew about the other girl was her name and address in Leipzig but she proceeded to write to her about parties dates exams about her high school graduation and her troublesome younger brother “We found out our families were very similar in some ways” Logan said chuckling At first each girl wrote in the other’s language but soon the letters and cards which were to settle down to a regular four or five a year were all in English Near the end of the 1930s as Europe braced for war Marianne Herbst’s letters for the first time spoke of mat- ters outside her school and family “She said she knew there was going to be a war and she wished it wouldn’t happen — none of her family wanted war? said Logan World War II interrupted the correspondence for eight long years — years when Logan recalls being preoccupied with other things “We were at war” she explained shrugging “My brother was in it Ed’s brother was in it Your mind is on one thing then: your own family I did wonder about her sometimes though” It was 1947 before she heard again from Marianne Herbst trapped in the Soviet zone of a divided Germany worried for her brother who had been imprisoned by the Soviets 2Kk years before and desperately in need See PEN PALS on 5F BadkwdB anH shapes ‘Maverick’ designer delights CAMDEN Maine (UPI) — Bill Moss was an artist — a “painter of pic— when he decided to try something tures” new He extended the canvas off the wall into a dome shape so art lovers could sit inside to view the work “Someone at the gallery said ‘You could live in this So I quit painting and started making tents” said Moss 61 owner of Moss Tent Works — a name that scarcely describes his business tents can Today airy exotic be seen in museums on rooftops above city courtyards in the woods — and in the deserts of Arab countries where sheiks use them as alternate homes The Museum of Modem Art in New York recently put a Moss tent on display as part of its permanent collection as did the Louvre in Paris And the 1984 Olympic Committee bought 13 Moss designs but decided against using them “I offered to create disposable tents that would last four weeks — the Olympics only lasts for three — but that was too far out for them” Moss said His first foray into creating functional arself-describ-ed ed re tistic shapes out of fabric occurred in the and it has taken him down some 0s unexpected paths — crossing the borders tween sculpture architecture and basic Photo by Roger Ressmeyer Cass and Joe Montana struck a loving pose $§ mid-195- of Then this summer they met at last during a trip Emily Logan and her husband Edward took to Europe this summer Though the two couples were able to be together for a day Logan believes the meeting however brief succeeded apart multi-millionai- anniversaries mothers-in-la- w And it has opened doors to parties with numerous celebrities But the carousel stopped about 14 months ago after a separation Life since then has been one of loneliness and hurt for the pretty United Airlines flight attendant And humiliation has crept in as she sits helplessly by while scandal publications pick her Moss-design- wedding who came to visit and cookies that turned out too hard Only occasionally did the events of the age impinge For 52 years the housewife from Philadelphia and the housewife from Germany were friends but on paper only quarterback Joe Montana to dinners at the White House and with Queen Elizabeth in San Francisco be- infree-for- m “I’m kind of a maverick A lot of people say if it’s functional — it isn’t art But I keep making functional sculptures and I get in shows anyway” said the slender designer with the unruly grey hair His designs are based on what he — a form that varies in “para-wingcalls a ” its irregular shape but always appears to be floating effortlessly Its simplest form may be seen arching over outdoor restaurants in Camden and on rooftop restaurants in other resort communities soft-spok- en free-for- m he abandoned the world of art the first Moss tent design was sold to American Thermos Co which manufactured the “Pop Tent” until the patent ran out three years ago “It was the largest-sellin- g tent in the world for 20 years” Moss said but when the patent expired “everyone knocked off an inexpensive version” Experimentation with fabrics led Moss to When one-dimensio- design the disposable paper dress for Kimberly Clark 18 years ago “It was the precursor of all that disposable hospital stuff” Moss said “We did disposable sheets bathing suits — even a disposable tent but that didn’t prove as popular as the dress” Moss now designs disposable houses temd fabric porary “disaster housing” houses and even has a fabric hotel in the year-roun- functional works When he built a vinyl-coate- d cardboard dome for use as his family’s summer home Moss said it took three days to build the wooden support deck but only one day to put up the house The cardboard structure sat on the edge of Maine’s North Haven Island for 1 1 years before the bottom edges began to rot Moss said he learned valuable lessons he can apply to the next one Preferring to experiment on himself Moss plans to sell his ordinary wood frame house in Maine and build a fabric summer dwelling and another for winters in Tempe Ariz where he has accepted a professorship with the Sculpture Department of Arizona State University The fabric houses won’t be the first of their kind Six California residents live in Moss fabric houses based on the Optimum 350 tent design or “Op tent” that won him a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1977 Moss said six of the “Op tent” houses are used as hospital units in Costa Rica and six architects have erected them lands as summer homes ?on Greek Is- His new line of fabric houses will be modeled after the tent studio he has worked in for two years by the shore of the Megunticook River in Camden United Press International Bill Moss takes shelter in one of his creations |