The marriage of Ruth Reddick and Robert Dana Teague on July 1, 1943, united two distinguished Ventura County families. Ruth, an Oxnard native, was the daughter of Ruth (Dresslar) (1894-1994) and Harry E. Reddick (1892-1957), former Santa Paula city engineer, regional director for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service for California and Nevada, and a long-time Santa Paula citrus and avocado rancher. Dana, born in Ventura, was the son of Dana Lyndon Teague (1873-1950), a Maine potato farmer turned citrus rancher, and through his mother, Pansy Brewster Teague (1880-1943), the grandson of J.C. Brewster (1841-1909), Ventura's pioneer photographer, whose work provides a unique visual chronicle of the history of Ventura.

Ruth Reddick (1921-2007) first met Dana Teague (1919-2007) at the Rincon, where the two families had summer cottages. Ruth's father, Harry, was born in Abilene, Kansas, but came to Ventura as a teenager and graduated from Ventura Union High School in 1911. After earning his civil engineering degree at USC, he returned to Ventura, became a licensed surveyor and was appointed Santa Paula city engineer in 1919. As regional director for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service from 1934-1944, he was an active advocate for best farming practices, traveling widely, writing newspaper articles and giving public presentations on soil conservation, stream bank control, and irrigation. He also served as a director of the Santa Paula Citrus Association and Citizens State Bank and as a member of the Santa Paula High School board of trustees.

Dana Teague's father, Dana Sr., grew up on a farm in Caribou, Maine. Dana Sr. took over the family farm after his father's death in 1896, but came to Ventura in 1906. He likely came to join his cousin, Charles C. Teague, the citrus grower who served president of the California Fruit Growers Exchange for 30 years and is considered the father of cooperative marketing in California. In 1911, Dana Sr. purchased a Santa Paula lemon grove and spent the rest of his life as a citrus rancher. Dana Sr. married Pansy Brewster in 1909, the only daughter of J.C. Brewster, who set up shop in Ventura as a photographer in 1874 after 12 years of working at his trade through much of the West. Brewster lived in Ventura until his death in 1909, leaving an unrivaled pictorial history of Ventura County, having photographed numerous residents, buildings, events, and places through his prolific work.

Encouraged by Ruth, Dana Jr. followed in his grandfather's footsteps and opened his own photography studio in Santa Paula after returning from overseas Army service in World War II. A graduate of ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles (Ruth got her degree in art from Mills College), he was well-known in Ventura and Santa Barbara for his distinctive sepia-toned portraits. Ruth and Dana had three children--Suzanne Teague Pidduck, Dana, and Timothy Teague.