Mona¿s impressive mansion 40 miles east of Portland, Oregon, was built in 1928 as a gift from her lover, the flamboyant entrepreneur Sam Hill, whose lasting works include the Maryhill Museum and the Columbia River Highway. That same year, their child, a boy, was born in Portland. Three years later Sam, 33 years Mona¿s senior, was dead. The government condemned the mansion she loved, offering compensation Mona would deride as a pittance. For 15 months she battled the government in federal court with two of Sam¿s longtime friends at her side, a former Oregon governor as her attorney and the current governor as a witness. While she won three times more than the government offered, she never outgrew the pain of losing both the man and the place she loved in quick succession. Her son was her obligation, but with her new wealth, travel and flowers, particularly lilies, became her passion. Later, her daughter-in-law would say, ¿she just was not cut out to be a mother.

She was a woman alone, and she was OK with it.¿.