Los Gatos has a deep literary legacy stretching from Jack London and Ambrose Bierce to John Steinbeck. The thread took an even more curious twist when, in the early 1950s, Southern Pacific brakeman Neal Cassady bought a home in then-unincorporated Monte Sereno with money from a settled railroad injury.
Cassady’s East Coast friends included poet Allen Ginsberg and author Jack Kerouac, who, during visits here, hung his lantern from a tree in the backyard to journal at night.
The literary nexus epicentered along Highway 9 in the 50s and 60s ties directly to the ascendance of the Beat Generation and the psychedelic counterculture that followed—and morphed into the innovation culture of Silicon Valley.
Carolyn and Neal Cassady raised their three children here: Cathy, Jami and John. Neal died in Mexico in 1968.
John played in bands and worked for Los Gatos-based optical character recognition pioneer Caere Corp. Carolyn sold the home in the 90s and moved to England.
(Sketch by Saoirse Alesandro)
Carolyn had been an ambivalent steward of Neal’s legacy, because in the pre-feminist days, raising a family with a non-traditional husband was painful and challenging. The task fell to Jami, the keeper of the Cassady legacy after Carolyn died in 2013.
Neal had been known as a literary muse to Ginsberg and Kerouac, and later Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead—when he drove the Furthur bus (chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test). Both the Dead and the Doobie Brothers have songs dedicated to Neal Cassady.
It was Jami Cassady who ultimately completed the narrative. She displayed her mother’s oil paintings at restaurants in Santa Cruz and galleries in the East Bay. She uncovered and published the Joan Anderson letter, which established Neal Cassady as a literary force in his own right.
Celebrating the Life of Jami Cassady Ratto
Saturday, Aprril 11, 12pm.
Vasona Lake County Park, 333 Blossom Hill Rd. Creekside Site, Los Gatos, CA, 95032.
Melany Jane “Jami” Cassady Ratto passed away Jan. 16, leaving behind a life defined by devotion to family, service to others and a deep commitment to art, culture and legacy.
Born in San Francisco, Melany was raised in Los Gatos as the middle child of Neal and Carolyn Cassady. She carried forward the creative and intellectual curiosity instilled by her parents, who gave her unlimited access to the arts, philosophy, spirituality, literature, dance and painting throughout her life.
On Feb. 8, 1975, Melany married the love of her life, Randy Ratto, on what would have been her father’s birthday. Together they shared 40 years of marriage, building a life rooted in partnership, curiosity and shared purpose. She was a devoted mother to her daughter, Rebecca Elizabeth, and a proud grandmother to Bradley, Elizabeth and Elliott.
Melany dedicated 45 years to a career in dentistry, retiring in January 2015. Her professional life was marked by care, precision and a genuine concern for the well-being of others.
In later years, Melany and Randy lived in a beautiful coastal village in Northern California. For more than 15 years, they studied the Beat legacy and committed themselves to preserving and advancing the Beat inspiration of the Cassady Estate. In November, she curated an exhibition of her mother’s paintings. Melany considered this work a blessing and a responsibility, honoring a remarkable cultural legacy with passion and humility.
She is survived by her husband, Randy Ratto, her daughter and grandchildren and her siblings, older sister Cathy and younger brother John, as well as the extended Cassady family to whom she felt a deep and enduring connection.
Jami Cassady Ratto will be remembered for her warmth, intellectual curiosity, devotion to family and her lifelong reverence for creativity and expression.
