In the years after the formation of Poway Historical and Memorial Society in 1954, concerned members made a point of interviewing longtime residents of the community to capture their remembrances for posterity.
Once making history, Poway woman now helps preserve it
Mary Shepardson
Print
Mary Shepardson is known in Poway for many things being a member of its first City Council, Poway’s first female mayor and a former reporter for the Poway News Chieftain.
Shepardson is also known for being one of Poway’s historians.
While not born in Poway, Shepardson moved to the then-unincorporated community with her parents, David R. and Marion Shepardson, and her brother, Philip Shepardson, in 1949. Born in south Pasadena, Shepardson said her father wanted to be a farmer and the family originally moved to Fallbrook, then Poway’s High Valley neighborhood when Shepardson was 3 years old. After realizing farming would not support the family, her father got his real estate license. “My dad was the peacemaker,” Shepardson said. “My mom was the feisty one.”