Meet Your Neighbor: Janed Guymon Casady
Among the many wonderful things about Mission Hills are its convenient location, history, architecture and especially people. Community is a reflection of the people who live within its perimeters. One of those to whom most of us can relate is Janed Guymon Casady. Most of you will recognize her maiden name, “Guymon.” Her grandfather Edward Tyndal Guymon, and her father Edward “Ned” Tyndal Guymon, Jr., having moved from Kansas to San Diego in 1921, built that iconic home at 2055 Sunset Boulevard. Janed was born and grew up in the house recognized as one of the most prominent in San Diego. But being taller than most of her Francis Parker classmates, carrying the impact of her big house, and unusually named for her mother “Jane” and father “Ned,” Janed learned early to create her own path.
Playing piano became a gift and a passion by the age of five. She plays by ear and has always relished any opportunity to play either with a band or solo whenever the instrument is nearby. Janed graduated from the Bishop’s School in La Jolla and attended Occidental College for two years and UCLA for one year before graduating from San Diego State. After a two-month trip through the Caribbean and around South America, she again set forth for another adventure planned across the Pacific and on to Australia. She never got further than Tahiti, and after spending a romantic year there, returned to San Diego, much to her parents’ relief.
In 1966, after meeting Kent Casady at a St. Patrick’s Day party, a first date was to the Hotel del Coronado for the annual Jefferson Jackson dinner, a yearly iconic Democratic Party event. Kent, one of five sons of the crusading journalist and influential Democratic Simon Casady, lost to Pete Wilson that year in a bid for the California Assembly. He and Janed were married in November and moved to the
“Zoo Landscape House” at 3737 1st Avenue with the marvelous animal sculptures. Love it!
After several years on Avalon Drive and the birth of two children, Guymon Patrick and Bret LeBaron, Kent and Janet purchased the Sunset house from her mother. By now Janed had developed a passion for politics, a shared family interest that brought a wide variety of people to the house for fundraisers and seminars, as well as a multitude of social, charitable and support events. Guests such as Governor Jerry Brown, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, author David Halberstam, General Victor “Brute” Krulak and Senator John Tunney kept things lively. The Big House was also the setting for the second annual Historical Society’s Showcase House. When Kent and she separated, the house was sold for the first time out of family. It sold once more a few years ago to buyers who have meticulously restored its exemplary status.
In some ways Janed has led a life of story. Yet, neither fame nor the position appealed to her. What she did love is the access to people it gave her, and the joy of volunteering: class mother, Women’s Association for the Salk Institute, San Diego Crew Classic, the San Diego Burn Institute, playing piano for Alzheimer’s Day Care Center Elderhelp, and other purposes that intrigued her, and a discreet worker for causes that matter to her. She is a listener and an admirer of people.
Grandma J’s two grandsons and two granddaughters and their parents all live in Los Angeles, and amazingly, Janed has lived on Ampudia Street for 42 years, just two miles from where she was born at Scripps Mercy Hospital.
Category: Historical, Local News
