Judy Custer Collection
FULL FINDING AID AND LIST OF MATERIALS
Read the finding aid for the Judy Custer Collection processed between 2020-2024.
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BIOGRAPHY
Judith A. Custer was born October 9, 1947 in Bellflower, California. She often went by shortened versions of her name, Judy, Jud, and the nickname Weed– given to her by her Girl Scout troops. Her father, John K. Custer was a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force, causing their family to move frequently, living across the United States and internationally. She started high school at Wheelus Air Base in Libya, then moved to Waco, Texas attending Richfield High School. Her mother was Virginia Custer, and she had four siblings, Ginny, Libby, Jay, and Jack. From a young age she was involved with the Girl Scouts even while in Libya, and for a short period in Taiwan.
Judy attended California State College, Long Beach and received a BA in physical therapy in 1971. In College she continued participating in the Girl Scouts, acting as Senior troop leader and spending summers as unit leader and assistant camp director. In the 1970s, Judy became a member of the Greater Long Beach Girl Scout Council.
Between 1983 and 1985 Judy built a house in Guffey, Colorado where Judy would live the rest of her life. She wanted to escape the traffic of Long Beach, return to nature, and own land. She bought 80 acres of land from Vernon and Maxine Zellers who she stayed in regular contact with through the late 1990s. To build her home, she hired an all lesbian crew of women, her friends– who did the majority of the building work– and one man, a licensed contractor, to oversee the project. The house was an earth-beamed, passive solar home true to her values as an environmentalist. The woman who helped Judy build her house was named Cher Nelson, who went on to become a contractor with an all-woman crew, and helped other lesbians who moved to the area. Judy worked as a physical therapist in the nearby Cañon City at Sangre de Cristo Hospice.
Guffey, Colorado was a growing lesbian community from the mid-1980s to 2012. Judy had a community of lesbian women getting together for potlucks, movie nights, dinners. This network of relationships is visible in the letters and notes Judy got from neighbors checking in, reporting on their travels with postcards, or just saying hello. Judy’s partner Honor detailed, “the population of our community got larger and larger as word of mouth spread and many lesbians moved there from, largely, California. It was all word of mouth and the publication, Lesbian Connection, probably had something to do with it.”
From 1993 to her death she lived in Guffey, in the mountains, with her life partner Honor Heart. In Honor’s own words:
“Jud was integral to the lesbian community and the larger community as well in Guffey. She was a very active volunteer with the volunteer emergency medical outfit that operated in the rural area around Guffey. She volunteered with them as an emergency medical staff EMS for over 20 years. They all loved and appreciated her immensely. She was a good advocate for the lesbian community just by being who she was.”
She maintained ownership of a house in Bellflower, CA which she rented out and had managed by her ex-girlfriend and friend Paula Fisher until approximately the late 1990s or early 2000s.
In 2007 Judy was diagnosed with cancer, and passed away on August 23, 2008.