OUR LAGUNA:Boyd family comes home to barbecue

The Boyd Family celebrated “homecoming” last week.

About 30 members of the clan gathered Friday night at the home of Michelle and Councilman Kelly Boyd and on Saturday for the annual “Boyd B Q” at a home that has been in the family for decades.

“We had just the family on Friday night so we could all catch up on what everyone is doing,” the councilman said. “They came from all over.”

The annual get-together began more than 10 years ago as a combination birthday party for his mother, Doris, and a reunion for family and friends at “Aunt Dorothy’s” house.

Boyd’s mother lived in the house for the last 15 years of her life, and the family decided to continue the reunion there after her death three years ago.

Dr. Eleanor Fraser, a Boyd cousin who practices medicine at Lake Isabella, owns the home she inherited from her mother, Dorothy Fraser. It is next door to the Laguna Beach Unified School District parking lot, owned by Boyd’s parents until the district condemned it and took over the property.

Doris and Robert Boyd married in 1938 and had five children: Robert, nicknamed “Happy,” the eldest; followed by Barton, always called “Bo;” then Kelly, Cindy (Mary Lucinda), the one girl; and Randy, the youngest.

They are the grandchildren of Marie and Joseph S. Thurston, whose father homesteaded Aliso Canyon in 1871.

A mobile home park, a school, a scholarship endowment and book, “Early Days in Laguna” or “Early Days of Laguna,” depending on the copy, bear the Thurston name — testament to their grandfather’s contributions the community and business acumen in community investments.

Two of Thurston’s grandchildren have continued the family’s tradition of active participation in the business and community affairs of Laguna Beach.

Kellyowns the Marine Room Tavern and has twice been elected to the City Council, in 1978 and 2006. He married Michelle Vierstra in 1982.

Randy owns Thurston Boyd Interiors, where he plies his talents as an interior designer. His own homes have been featured in shelter magazines and opened to the public for fundraising tours. Neither is happy the younger generations find Laguna out of their financial reach.

Kelly’s daughter Shana, 35, lives in Colorado and has a son, Michael, 10. Kelly’s son, Sean, lives in Canada and has a daughter, 5.

“None of them can afford to live here,” Kelly said in an interview with the Coastline Pilot honoring pioneer families during Laguna’s Heritage Month of May. “Except when Cindy comes home for the holidays or a couple of weeks in the summer, it’s just Randy and me.”

Randy chimed in: “We don’t like that.”

But last weekend, Randy and his partner, Rick Zinni, and Kelly and Michelle were surrounded by the family circle, which included their daughter Kirsten Rugg and her husband Doug, of Newport Beach; Hap and his wife, Sandy; their daughter, Cappy Woodburn, her husband, Richard, grandson, Jarrod and granddaughter Conner from Florida; their son, Dylan and his wife Ryen and their sons, Hayden and Hudson from Oregon; and son Bryan, also from Oregon.

Bo and Vicki Boyd came from Nevada. Their son Rob and his wife Carrie brought granddaughter Chase. Daughter Christen Schmidt and her husband Brad brought their children, Nick and Jessica. Son Cam brought his son, CJ.

Cindy Boyd-Young and her partner Nick Chudley traveled from England with his children, Alice, Rachael and George, to meet up with her son Brennan from Pennsylvania and Nick’s children.

Kelly’s godmother, Margaret Koster, 92, who has lived in Emerald Bay since 1944, and her son, Bruce Smith, were among the guests.

Also: Danny and Guida Quan, nee Foster, who both grew up in Laguna.

“We were the first Asian family in Laguna Beach,” Danny Quan said. “ ‘Bo’ was my best friend.”

Quan’s parents, Nathan and Elaine Quan, owned the Jade Tree for 43 years, an import shop at 397 S. Coast “Boulevard” — that’s how you tell the newcomers; they don’t remember, if they ever knew, that it was a boulevard before it was a highway.

“Danny is part of the family,” Michelle Boyd said.

Councilwoman Jane Egly dined and chatted with Susan Shaw, Laguna Beach County Water District General Manager Renae Hinchey, Steve Battaglia, who has worked for the Boyd family for more than 20 years and Rudy Campos, who estimated he has known the family for 44 years.

Among the 80 guests at the Boyd B Q: Lyn and Tim Carlyle. Carlyle, an attorney, who served as president of the Laguna Beach School Board in 1995, was recently hired by South Coast Medical Center to liaise with the city on behalf of the hospital.

Ernie and Councilwoman Elizabeth Schneider, head of the medical center’s fund-raising foundation, came from another function, only taking time to change into “beachy” clothes. Michael and Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman and their sons Nicholas and Josh came straight from the Ringling Brothers Circus.

The guest list also included Corky and Susy Fontana, who used to work with Michelle at the Laguna Beach County Water District, retired Fire Chief Captain Jim Boka and his wife, Tookie; Peppertree Lane manager Katie Moss; Tom and Sawdust exhibitor Patti Klingenmeier; Jeff Ross, Terri Hustwick, (Carlyle’s sister), Terry Cunningham, Aggie Dougherty, Joe Ramirez, Kathy Lardie, Curt and Jan Bartsch, Tom Kennedy, Mike and Stephanie Webster, John O’Neil, Kim and Di Harley, Ray Lardie, Kerry Walker, Nick Brewer, Jean Threadgold, and Debby and Steven Covern.

The Trish Freeman Band, which plays the first Friday and Saturday of the month at the Marine Room, entertained for the third time at a Boyd B Q. Her a capella rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” has become a tradition.