Juanita Montgomery (1913-1997)

Juanita Montgomery (1913-1997) studied as a child under Fort Worth art teachers Carrie Greathouse; Sallie Blyth Mummert -- her primary mentor from 1926 to 1938; and Sallie Gillespie. After graduating from Central High School in 1931, Juanita enrolled at North Texas Agricultural College (now The University of Texas at Arlington), and later transferred to TCU - Texas Christian University, where she studied public school art, preparing to become a teacher. Caught in the Depression, Juanita turned to antique restoration, designing downtown store windows, and illustrating fine books and manuscripts for Kennedale rare book dealer Philotheleos K. Ferney. She was accepted as a student member of the Fort Worth Artists’ Guild and exhibited in its juried and non-juried shows in 1938 and 1939.

Her professional art career was launched as the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Convair) bomber plant opened in Fort Worth in 1942 where she became a technical illustrator working alongside other Fort Worth artists including Dickson Reeder and Kelly Fearing, preparing detailed equipment drawings for B-24 Liberator bomber and C-87 Liberator transport aircraft. In 1943, this photo of Juanita was featured in Harper’s Bazaar as an example of an American woman contributing to the war effort. She married Porter Gilbert in 1943; left Consolidated briefly after the war; but returned in 1947, remaining with the company another nineteen years. Throughout her adult life, Juanita Gilbert continued to work as an artist, concentrating in watercolors and oils.

Source: Montfort, Sawtelle, and Gilbert Family Papers, 1943