News at Eleven (Back Page): That's the [Neal] Cassady

of wild-man legend. Others knew a more thoughtful, introspective man.

"To me he was just our daddy," says his daughter, Jami Cassady, who grew up in the Bay Area and still lives in California. Now 61, she was in second grade when "On the Road" came out.

"Until I was 14 I didn't know anything about any of this," she says. "He was the man who took me to ballet class. We lived in the suburbs, and he went to work each day for the railroad."

Granted, there were lots of interesting friends traipsing through the house, which Neal Cassady shared with his wife, Carolyn, until their divorce. Kerouac and Ginsberg were regular visitors and her surrogate uncles.

from The Denver Post: The Beats go on: Denver honors prodigal son Neal Cassady

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