Martha Outlaw Guasti

GUASTI -Martha Outlaw Guasti, born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, she died December 30, 2002, a resident of Montecito since 1960 and of Pasadena the prior 14 years. She became a popular dance instructor in her youth before attending the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she played the violin. Martha ventured to New York where she became a high prof ile model for corporations including Montgomery Ward, Pepsi, Budweiser, and Vogue Magazine. She was selected the 1942 Queen of the Press Photographers' Ball and went on to win a contract with Redbook magazine as their cover girl. Martha enjoyed a break from the rigors of New York modeling when she was invited with four other models by the government of Mexico to participate in various official functions as part of the "Good Neighbor" policy of the time. She was next cast in several Hollywood films includin g the 1943 big budget Columbia Pictures hit, "Cover Girl" in color with Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. In 1944, Martha wed WWII ace fighter pilot Henry E. Huntington II of Pasadena. She remarried in 1954 to Secondo Guasti III, a third generation Californian and descendent of the owner of Guasti Vineyards in Ontario, California. She will always be loved and missed by her surviving two sons, Edward O. Huntington and Henry E. Huntington III, as well as her daughter-in-law, Judith, and her two grandchildren, E lisse and Collis. A Graveside Service is planned for Monday, January 6, 2003, at 11:00 A.M. at Santa Barbara Cemetery. Arrangements by Welch Ryce Haider Funeral Chapels.