Monumental Dreams: The Life and Sculpture of Ann Norton

18. The Garden as Legacy

166 18 The Garden as Legacy Ann’s will was dated April 28, 1979. In it, she left $25,000 and Ralph’s piano to her sad nephew, William, and $50,000 to Gene Leofanti. Other small bequests were made to Gyani Maharani in Kathmandu ($1,000), her sister Rose ($5,000), her old friend Grace Jones ($2,000), her traveling companion Richard Beresford ($1,000), and her longtime black cook, Lessie ($1,000), among others. (Earl, her driver, had already died.) She bequeathed a sculpture “of her choice” to Ralph’s daughter Beatrice Richards, who had supported her work more than the rest of the Norton family had. The largest and most controversial bequest was to Monique du Boisrouvray, “my devoted friend,” in the sum of $72,000. In a codicil dated June 18, 1980, Ann also left her “my personal effects, wearing apparel and jewelry.” Following probate, the house and gardens of 235 Barcelona Road were deeded to the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens Foundation (ANSG). Ann’s personal trust from Ralph reverted, as he had stipulated in his will, to the Norton Gallery of Art. (To this day, Ralph Norton’s endowments continue to help cover operating costs and acquisitions for the museum.) Once all of these payments had been made, plus fees and legal expenses , the final bequest to the foundation amounted to something under $40,000—a dismal endowment and a terrible shock to the trustees. Her lawyer and executor (and later U.S. senator) Harry A. Johnston II had warned her that with the pitiful funds he realized would be available after her death, it would not be possible for the gardens to continue to exist. (“I was doing the math.”) He urged her to turn the gardens into a The Garden as Legacy · 167 foundation that could then have a tax-exemption, which, he said, Ann did in six weeks. She was determined for the gardens to survive. According to Johnston, she set up a group of people to take over the ANSG after her death. “But they did not have business acumen or money,” he said. The most pressing problem was Monique. Although not included in the will, Ann had made a private employment agreement with Monique in August 1981, six months before she died, stating that Monique would stay in the Barcelona Road house for her lifetime and that she would be paid a regular monthly salary of $1,500 to maintain the projects and functions of the gardens. (Was Monique “feathering her nest” at a time when her friend was very sick and vulnerable? Her critics of course thought so.) Few of the trustees of the ANSG thought this arrangement was a good idea. Monique was already making a nuisance of herself by throwing parties at the house and generally disrespecting the place. “She was abusing the privilege,” Harry Johnston said. “So I fell back on the IRS.” He argued before the board that Ann’s attempted gift of the house to Monique for her lifetime could not be considered a charitable gift by the IRS; and if inhabited it would be excluded from the nonprofit status of the foundation and therefore liable for taxes. At this point it was quickly agreed that the Monique du Boisrouvray (right), Ann’s controversial companion and supporter, in a picture taken with a friend after Ann’s death. Photo courtesy of ANSG. 168 · The Journey to the Source: Florida, 1954–1982 employment agreement was not binding. In the end, as part of a lawsuit that went to arbitration, Monique was forced out of the house and into the garage apartment. “She didn’t go quietly,” Harry Johnston recalled. Fund-raising efforts stalled in angry confrontations between various members of the foundation. Some directors wanted to turn the estate into a private social club. Others wanted it to become a nonprofit, fund-raising foundation that would keep the ANSG maintained and open to the public. In extremis, the trustees asked the Norton Gallery of Art to take them over, but the Norton board refused. This was the last in a long list of resentments between the two institutions. Ever since Ann’s granite memorial had been refused a place on the museum grounds, there had been tension. Many of the Norton Gallery trustees hardly recognized Ann’s existence at all, being loyal to Ralph’s more satisfactory—and to them, legitimate—first wife...