Pierre Monteux - Personal Life

Personal Life

Monteux had six children, two of them adopted. From his first marriage there were a son, Jean Paul, and a daughter, Suzanne. Jean Paul became a jazz musician, performing with artists such as Josephine Baker and Mistinguett. His second marriage produced a daughter, Denise, later known as a sculptress, and a son, Claude, a flautist. After Monteux married Doris Hodgkins he legally adopted her two children, Donald, later a restaurateur, and Nancie, who after a career as a dancer became administrator of the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock. Monteux's brother, Henri, a successful actor, died in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.

Among Monteux's numerous honours, he was a Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur and a Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. In 1960 he was inducted into in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A political and social moderate, in the politics of his adopted homeland he supported the Democratic Party and was a strong opponent of racial discrimination. He ignored taboos on employing black artists; reportedly, during the days of segregation in the US, when told he could not be served in a restaurant "for colored folk" he insisted that he was coloured – pink.