Monty Burnham died peacefully on September 18, 2023 in Providence, Rhode Island, less than eighteen months after her beloved husband, Richard I. “Dick” Burnham. She was a leader and a loyal friend, whose greatest loves were her late husband of fifty years, and her children and grandchildren.
Fanchon Metcalf Watkins was born in Providence on December 5, 1944 to Helen Danforth and John C.A. Watkins. Her father, who later would become publisher of the Providence Journal, gave her the nickname Monty after the last airbase in Montesquieu, Algeria, where he had been stationed as a pilot in World War II. Monty attended Rocky Hill Elementary and the Wheeler School in Rhode Island, and boarded at St. Timothy’s School in Maryland, graduating in 1962. Her parents divorced and remarried, and she gained loving step-parents, the actress Izetta Jewel “June” Watkins and Patrick Bury Buchanan of Touch near Stirling, Scotland. At Vassar College, she wrote her senior thesis on Virginia Woolf. Following graduation in 1966, Monty worked in London for the United Press International, until she moved to New York, and became an assistant to Richard Morsches in Operations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Realizing that while she appreciated art, she would rather work in finance, Monty used her skills as a writer to convince Richard Jenrette to hire her at Donaldson, Lufkin, Jenrette investments, whose offices were in the same building, she would later discover, as those of her future fiancé. Monty met Dick in the summer of 1971 at the pool bar of Bailey’s Beach during the Newport Chamber Music Festival, introduced by their mutual friend Jay Coupe. She returned home that evening and announced, “I’ve met the man I’m going to marry.” They travelled to Italy together later that summer, had a near fatal car accident in Sicily, and were engaged in Rome while she recovered in the hospital. Married on January 29, 1972, at St. James Church in New York, Monty still walked with a cane necessitated by the accident, but included her energetic corgi Dylan in the festivities. After moving to Washington, DC, in 1973, Monty raised two children with Dick in Georgetown while establishing a career in accounting, and serving as an advisor for non-profits. She earned a Masters in Accounting from Georgetown University in 1983 and founded F.M. Burnham and Associates, which specialized in small business bookkeeping and consulting. Monty was President of the Board of Directors of Family and Children Services of Washington, D.C., and a long-standing member of the finance committee of the National Cathedral. She sat on the board of directors of the Providence Journal and subsequently the AH Belo Corporation. Her greatest philanthropic passion was The Preservation Society of Newport County, on whose board she remained for twenty years—the last five as Chairman of the Board. The thoughtfully designed and beautifully executed Welcome Center at The Breakers is a testament to her skills as a leader, and her dedication to projects intended for the greater good. Monty leaves behind a loving extended family, who will miss her dearly, including her children Helen Burnham Jacobs and John Burnham, their spouses George Jacobs and Morgan McKenna Burnham, her grandchildren John “Jack” Burnham, Taylor Brynn Burnham, Robert Finnegan Burnham, George Jacobs, and Wesley Jacobs. Her siblings Stephen D. Watkins, Jane P. Watkins, and step-sister Izetta Jewel Smith and their families mourn her loss. We feel, as Monty might say, “as if all the stuffing has been taken out.”
The funeral will be held at Christ Church, Georgetown, and a memorial is planned for the summer of 2024 in Newport, Rhode Island. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The Preservation Society of Newport County.
Photo Credit Andrea Hansen Photography/The Preservation Society of Newport County
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