Pasadena Ca

During his lifetime, Fletcher Jackson has had many friends, but none like Susan Townsend. His days at a Pasadena convalescent hospital begin and end with a phone call to Townsend, who visits him once or twice a week, occasionally bringing her husband and two children. The rattan bookcase in his room is from Townsend's home. The bulletin board she got him is covered with postcards from her recent trips. Sometimes, she surprises him with strawberry ice cream, his favorite.

Pasadena has a vision for the Arroyo Seco, one that combines modern amenities alongside rustic features in the sprawling river system that plunges out of the San Gabriel Mountains. Among the highlights of that vision: new and upgraded playing fields, an overnight camping area, more parking and better access to certain parts of the arroyo and an increase in the number of events held each year at the Rose Bowl.

Because our day-to-day lives tend toward the hectic, my wife and I have increasingly become fans of what we call "mini-vacs," weekend-long vacations that give us the respite we need. What we've become less enamored of is going through airports to take them. Wouldn't it be nice, we thought, to find the same things we travel for--museums, architecture, bookstores, good restaurants--in a place we'd not properly explored and without getting on an airplane to do it?

Until recently, I hadn't considered this city a vacation destination. Although its charming Old Town has always offered a welcome escape from Southern California's indoor shopping malls and chain restaurants, it's only 20 minutes from my house, not exactly enough to bring out the adventure traveler in me. What a difference a weekend makes.

She's tall, she's blond, she's smart--and now that she's royalty, Christina Leanne Farrell won't have to walk. The 17-year-old senior was named the 81st Rose Queen on Tuesday and will reign over the last Rose Parade of the 20th century atop a float. Last year, Farrell walked the parade in the Arcadia High School marching band. "I'm just really shocked. It's so overwhelming," said Farrell, a National Honor Society member. "I first decided I wanted to be queen when I was 5."

To the annals of volunteerism, along with the names of Betsy Ross and Mother Teresa, add Maggie the cat. In a modest package of gray and black fur, Maggie is the last line of defense in protecting animal lovers from unwisely mixing species. In what may be a unique role, the courageous feline is the Pasadena Humane Society's "dog tester." Her job is to ensure domestic peace when adopted dogs come to homes where their traditional enemies already live.

During the Great Depression, when the average house and lot cost around $5,000 in Pasadena, Caltech aerospace expert Clark Blanchard Millikan lived in a grand home that cost more than five times that amount. Millikan, internationally recognized for his work in aerodynamics and the son of Nobel Prize winner and Caltech President Robert A. Millikan, married well. His bride, Helen Staats, was the daughter of a wealthy real estate investor who provided the original 3.

The family of an East Los Angeles man shot and killed last month by a Pasadena policeman has filed a claim against that city seeking $10 million in damages. Officer Steve Arcand shot Javier Quezada Jr., 22, several times Jan. 23 in the parking lot of Las Encinas Hospital after Quezada allegedly charged at the policeman with a pair of 9-inch scissors.

Three young women were found shot to death early Friday in a home in the Annandale section of Pasadena, an affluent neighborhood overlooking the Rose Bowl. Police discovered the bodies of the victims--two of them 18, one 17--in the pool house of a home on Fairlawn Way, on a ridge above Annandale Country Club. Officers had received an anonymous call asking them to check on the welfare of residents at the house, said Lt. Van B. Anthony. Police identified three teen-age boys as suspects.

A 140-unit luxury apartment project has been completed near the Gold Line rail stop at Lake Avenue in Pasadena, one of several residential complexes being built or planned in the city. The $32-million Pasadena Gateway Villas at Hudson Avenue and Locust Street is a four-story Mediterranean and Spanish Revival-style complex in two wings separated by a 9,600-square-foot courtyard.