Marianne Moran Manny

Maya Moran Manny was born to a Dutch mother, Anna von der Nahmer, and a Belgian father, Willem Uyterhoeven, on August 31, 1934, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, as Marianne Uyterhoeven. She was known as Maya. Growing up in Nazi-occupied Holland with its deprivations and shortages led to a lifelong expertise for preparedness, frugality, and enduring hardships. Maya was an accomplished artist, author, columnist, lecturer, garden designer, cook, baker, and architectural preservationist, as well as a mother of four and grandmother of eight.

Art and architecture were Maya's passions. She was inspired by the architecture and photography courses of her youth and mastered four languages, majoring in Comparative Languages at Smith College after studying in France, England, and Switzerland. Upon graduation in 1956, she married John Moran, M.D. Over four moves for John's medical career and Air Force service, they raised four sons in Hingham, Massachusetts, and in Riverside, Illinois, where they settled into a Frank Lloyd Wright home in 1974. The kids grew up and Maya divorced, and the home remained the touchstone for their gatherings for 27 years, all of them in the thrall of a wonderful house in a beautiful setting.

Maya channeled her talents into Wright's Prairie Style Tomek House. Throughout her time rescuing and restoring the house- acting as contractor, maintenance woman, decorator, furniture designer, gardener, curator, and tour guide- she delved deep into the murky history of the home, leading eventually to the publication of Down to Earth: An Insider's View of Frank Lloyd Wright's Tomek House (SIU Press, 1995). Historian Robert Twombly called this "the first book about a Prairie house by someone who lives in one, the first about restoring a Wright residence, about renewing his landscaping. It is the first to reveal the tribulations, responsibilities, and frustrations (as well as the joys, rewards, and stimulations) of caring for such a place, that is, of living inside an early work of Wright's art. And it is the first to describe how [Wright's] ideas transformed the lives of real people... A book about the union of theory and practice." Maya obtained National Historic Landmark status for her home from the U.S. Department of the Interior, making Wright's Tomek House the first private residence to attain that distinction. She also earned the Frank Lloyd Wright Spirit award.

Maya was a lifelong diarist and later went back into her journals of her experience there to self-publish a memoir answering the question we most often got there: "What's it really like to live in a Wright House?" Look through the online version of Love Letters to a Frank Lloyd Wright House, which answers that question here.

Art was Maya's lifelong avocation. In her schooling, she excelled in track and writing, but also in drawing, where she won several prizes in local competitions and was awarded a drafting board and T-square, paints and brushes. She began creating art and never stopped. The rest of her life she drew in pencil and charcoal; sculpted in clay; and painted in oils, acrylics and watercolors. A sample of her paintings, drawings, and textile art is here.

After raising her four sons, she returned to her art schooling, studying painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with plans to teach art and history after finishing her degree.

Romance interrupted her teaching career when Carter Manny, Jr. hired her to re-imagine the gardens at his home in Michigan City, Indiana. Carter's late wife had long been a friend of Maya's. A retired architect, Carter had been a student of Mies van der Rohe, apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, and partner in the C.F. Murphy firm of Chicago. Upon his retirement, he became the Director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts until December 1993. Love blossomed in his garden there, and Carter and Maya married in 1995 and lived happily in Illinois, Indiana, and California until Carter's death at age 98 in 2017.

Maya brought energy, creativity, and generosity to all she touched. She was the "picture lady" in the local public schools, dropping in to expose the children to art and art history. She lectured widely for four decades on oriental rugs, horticulture, and architecture. She loved to garden and swim, famously swimming a mile on her later birthdays. Retiring to sunny San Rafael in 2004, she always brought a loaf of bread to new neighbors and hosted coffees, livening up the neighborhood.

Maya lived the last 10 years of her life without the use of her dominant hand, due to a stroke. Nevertheless, she lived on her own, still reading and learning, still baking her own bread, still cooking for visitors, still gardening, and still making art, using pastels held in her left hand. When her time to go had come, she said her farewells, delighting in the many messages she got from all over about how much she had added to their lives. She gathered her sons, picked a day, and left the world as she had lived, on her own terms. She will long be missed, yet will remain to inspire.

Donations in Maya's memory to her favorite organizations will be greatly appreciated by:

The Olmsted Society of Riverside
Box 65
Riverside, Illinois 60546
https://www.olmstedsociety.org/

Planned Parenthood of California
2 H Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
www.plannedparenthoodaction.org

Society of Architectural Historians
1365 North Astor Street
Chicago Illinois
60610-2144
https://sah.org/support-sah/donate-now/