Vontella Hess ^{1 2 3}

  General Notes:

Vontella Hess (1906-1971) was born in Farmington, Utah, to David Cornelius and Lois Kimball Hess. She was a great-granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball, a noted pioneer of the Mormon Church. Vontella married S. H. Buchholz in 1926. The couple had one son, Stanley. She married Richard H. Kimball in 1938. When Vontella was seventeen years of age she enrolled at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and was employed in the cosmetics department of Auerbach's, a local department store. Newspaper clippings show she was not only beautiful, but very skilled at her work and willing to teach others about cosmetics and fashion. Because of her talents and with the help of her mentor, Helena Rubenstein, she was sent to New York City to learn more about the make-up industry and later became the national education director of a large cosmetic firm called Tussy Cosmetics. In 1935, through her work, Vontella took her first trip abroad to deepen her knowledge of cosmetic techniques. Because of her experience, passion, and knowledge, Vontella often lectured on charm and beauty at business and social clubs, and she also gave classes at colleges, including Brigham Young University. A subject she frequently discussed was titled, "Beauty through the Ages."

In the course of her work, she visited Europe and the Middle East many times between 1935 and 1966. Vontella was impressed with the Arab world and the locations of the New Testament. She enjoyed visiting "every spot that Paul did" and wrote about being the first woman to enter the cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Additionally, Vontella collected artifacts dating back to 3000 B.C.

Her admiration for the Arab world kept her in contact with the friends she encountered on her many trips. Later she gave lectures in the United States on Arab costumes and jewelry. She lectured for twenty years and then went to radio and television.

Vontella Kimball died in 1971.
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Name: Vontella H Buchholz
Event Type: Immigration
Event Date: 1935
Event Place: New York, New York, United States
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Birthplace: Farmington Utah
Ship Name: Exeter
Birth Year (Estimated): 1906
Affiliate Publication Title: Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957.
Affiliate Publication Number: T715
Affiliate Film Number: 5698
GS Film number: 1757436
Digital Folder Number: 004874162
Image Number: 00886

Citing this Record:
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/24VV-VN8 : accessed 23 December 2014), Vontella H Buchholz, 1935; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 1,757,436.
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I'm baffled as to why many researchers including the Brigham Young University collection of her manuscripts at the Harold B. Lee Library give her name as "Vontella Hess Kimball", unless they are attempting to give her a surname similar to the hyphenated or combined surnames of her parents which would result in Vontella Hess-Kimball.

Compounding the name issue is the fact that following Vontella's marriage to Septimus Herman Buchholz, she was remarried in 1938 to Richard H. Kimball whom she references as a "distant cousin". Perhaps that is from where other researchers give her name as Vontella Hess Kimball but once again I should think that it would be the hyphenated, combined version as Vontella Hess-Kimball instead.

Compounding the name issue even more is the fact that many of these researchers give the name of the son she had with Septimus Herman Buchholz as Stanley Buchholz Kimball instead of just Stanley Buchholz. I have no idea how they can combine the surname of a grandmother (Lois Katherine Kimball) with that of the grandson's surname or maybe its the surname of her second husband as another Kimball making them think the son should somehow be called with the surname of the second husband following the surname of the first husband. I can find no records that would indicate that the son, who would have been 12 years old at the time of her second marriage, ever had his name legally changed from Buchholz to Kimball or even Buchholz-Kimball.

On her grave, the name appears as Vontella H. B. Kimball, in which the H stands for her maiden name of Hess, and the B stands for her first married name of Buchholz.
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  Birth Notes:

Name: Vontella Hess
Event Type: Birth
Event Date: 31 Jan 1906
Event Place: Farmington, Davis, Utah, United States
Gender: Female
Father's Name: David Cornelius Hess
Mother's Name: Lois Katherine Kimball

Citing this Record
"Utah, Birth Certificates, 1903-1914," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL37-JJPD : 9 March 2018), Vontella Hess, 31 Jan 1906; citing Farmington, Davis, Utah, United States; citing p. , ref. ID # , Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City; FamilySearch digital folder 004191359.
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  Noted events in her life were:

• Birth Image: 31 January 1906, in Farmington, UT.

• She was buried after 26 September 1971 in the Farmington City Cemetery in Farmington, UT.

Plot: B-116-2
Find A Grave Memorial #108349
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Vontella married Septimus Herman Buchholz, son of Carl Wilhelm Frederich Buchholtz and Isabel Sarah Sears, on 7 September 1926 in , Summit County, UT.¹ (Septimus Herman Buchholz was born on 19 June 1901 in Salt Lake City, UT ^{4 5 6 7 8 9 10} and died on 11 May 1966 in , Napa County, CA ^{9 10}.)