Anita Edmondson of the nonprofit Green Valley Civic Association and the Poway Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled to be sworn in Aug. 1. She will fill the seat previously held by Barry Leonard.
Once making history, Poway woman now helps preserve it
Mary Shepardson
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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.”