Hertha Emma Eisenmenger was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Hugo Emil Eisenmenger and Charlotte Sonya Escherich. Her parents were born in Austria and married there before they moved to the United States. Her father was an electrical engineer and brother of physician Victor Eisenmenger; her grandfather was Austrian painter August Eisenmenger.[1][2] Her parents divorced in 1936,[3] and both remarried, her mother to prominent engineer Ernst Weber.[4][5]
In 1981, the Flacks co-authored a book, Ambling and Scrambling on the Appalachian Trail, about their eight-year project of hiking the Appalachian Trail as retirees. The book's cover photo shows the older couple, embracing and smiling while holding hiking sticks.[9] They also toured giving lectures and slideshows about their hiking hobby,[10] and radio interviews promoting the book.[11] In 1985, they established the Flack Achievement Award and the Flack Faculty Award for Teaching at Swarthmore College.[12] They also created the Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE) and the Polk County Community Foundation, in North Carolina.[13][14]
Flack also painted landscapes and botanical watercolors, and exhibited her works mainly in North Carolina,[15] as a member of Tryon Painters and Sculptors.[8][16] She was still participating in local art shows in her nineties.[17]
Hertha Eisenmenger married naval officer James Monroe Flack in 1941; the best man at their wedding was Boston Red Sox pitcher Dave Ferriss.[18] After World War II, they lived in Massachusetts and North Carolina. They had two sons and two daughters. She was widowed when James M. Flack died in 1989, while the couple were traveling in the Soviet Union.[19] She remarried in 1993, to retired dentist Wray Stockton Monroe, and was widowed again when Monroe died in 2001.[20] She died in 2019, aged 102 years, in Tryon, North Carolina.[13][7]
^"HUGO E.EISENMENGER, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER". The New York Times. August 29, 1950. p. 27 – via ProQuest.
^"BARON EISENMENGER, COURT PHYSICIAN, DEAD: Medical Adviser to Late Archduke Francis Ferdinand and Ex- Emperor Charles". The New York Times. December 12, 1932. p. 15 – via ProQuest.
^"Decrees Granted". Reno Gazette-Journal. 1936-08-08. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-01-07 – via Newspapers.com.
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