Verdugo Views: Churchgoers played a part in Glendale history

By Katherine Yamada

April 6, 2016 3:25 PM PT

This is the story of a bride who grew up in a local church that her parents helped build and a groom who joined the church when he was in his 20s.

The bride’s parents, Ruth Hawkins and Frank Cayford, met at a Church of the Brethren in Idaho. After their marriage, they came to California, settled in North Hollywood and soon found several Brethren people who were meeting in a home on Pioneer Drive in Glendale.

Their son, Afton, born in 1929, was the first baby born in the fledgling congregation. Daughter, Lucile (our bride), was born in 1937. At age 6, she was singing in the children’s choir, and by 16, she was leading the children’s choir.

In 1933, the congregation built a church on Pacific Avenue. The Cayfords were very actively involved in church life, their daughter recalled in a series of emails.

“My dad was tall and strong ... a willing worker. When more worship space was needed, he helped build what became known as the Fireside Room,” she wrote. “The men went out to nearby streams, collected stones and brought them to church in the trunks of their cars, then worked together to build a fireplace in the new room.”

Her father, who worked at Glendale’s Forest Lawn for 45 years, was also the church gardener and custodian. Over the years, her mother served as church clerk, treasurer, Sunday school teacher, flower arranger, choir member and Women’s Fellowship member.

“They grew and arranged flowers for services every Sunday. Saturday evening, you would find my parents working on the flowers for the next day,” their daughter wrote.

As a young adult, she joined the Brethren Volunteer Service, serving in Washington state. When she returned in late 1960, she met a new member of the church, Marion Leard.

Leard was born in Arkansas, but when the family was forced out by the Dust Bowl, they loaded everything into a car, drove to western Washington and began raising chickens.

After his father died, Leard and his mother moved to Northern California and attended a Brethren church. He also joined the Brethren Volunteer Service, serving in Germany with the Heifer Project. After that, he came to Los Angeles to build houses and soon found the Glendale church — and his future wife.

They were married in 1961 at the North Glendale Methodist Church as their own sanctuary was too small. The reception was on the lawn at the Brethren church on Pacific.

Like his bride and her family, Leard was very active in the church, serving as chairman of properties and doing maintenance and repair work over the years.

When they began building a new sanctuary on the corner of Pioneer and Pacific in 1964, “Marion’s company moved the Sunday school building, which was on that space, to the rear of the property, where it is today. That was a big job. He did some volunteer work on the new structure and some supervision,’’ Lucile Cayford Leard wrote.

While her children were small, Cayford Leard was a substitute teacher. Then she taught instrumental and chorale music in Glendale elementary schools. When her husband passed away in 1995, friends and family filled the sanctuary for his funeral service.

Recently, after extensive rain damaged the Fireside Room, funds were raised, and professional and volunteer labor was used to refurbish it. The congregation named the room the “Cayford Fireside Room” in honor of the bride’s parents, who were charter members of the church when it was formed in 1929.

Readers write

Nick Friesen noted a reference to the Wright and Callender building in the Fanny Briggs Carr story on March 24.

“In 1955, I started with the Department of Water and Power, as a draftsman in the Subway Terminal building, which was an ‘L’ shape around the Wright and Callender building at Fourth and Hill,” he wrote.

After a promotion, his first office was on the seventh floor of the Wright and Callender.

“Neither of these buildings were air-conditioned, except for opening the windows which faced onto Fourth Street. I found this ironic, as our work was to design air-conditioning for DWP’s Power System facilities.”

Joemy Wilson, who did the research on Fanny Briggs Carr for the special exhibit at the Doctor’s House Museum in Brand Park, emailed, “It’s been such fun getting to know about Fanny and her era, and I’m thrilled that others will soon get the chance to become acquainted with this fascinating woman. I’m so glad you mentioned the divorce party. That should be intriguing enough to draw people to the exhibit to learn more about the Cucumber Cream Queen.”

KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com. or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.