Melody Marianne House was born in Glendale on June 15, 1969 to parents Harlan and Sue. She had four siblings: Cherie, Brandt, Diana (Melody’s fraternal twin sister), and Christy. Melody was a gifted painter who strove in her work to find beauty and humor in the strange and unseemly parts of life. She channeled her artistic talent into a long career in hair styling and coloring. She loved her work, and the clients and coworkers she met became some of her closest friends.

Melody began drawing at a very early age, and went on to win contests in school for her artwork. She was an excellent student and especially loved English. Her favorite novel was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. She had a great sense of humor, loved music and fashion, and developed an aesthetic sensibility that never shed the influence of the goth and punk movements of the 70s and 80s.

Before her eighteenth birthday, as her parents’ marriage neared its end, her mother threw her out of the family home, and she began hopping between temporary living situations with friends. While living with her friend Michelle in Long Beach, she fell in love with a local surfer, James Seely, and became pregnant. She kept the pregnancy, and given her precarious situation, she decided to place the child with an adoptive family she hoped would be able to provide the resources she could not. She gave birth to a boy on August 11, 1988, and spent three days with him before he was placed with his adoptive family. She had no other children.

After the adoption, and with the encouragement of her father, she attended Ricks College in Idaho. She didn’t fit in well with the conservative culture there, and left after her father’s sudden death in 1989. In the early 1990s, Melody joined her sister Diana at the University of Utah, before eventually leaving for Seattle in the mid 90s. There, she trained as a hair stylist and color specialist at the prestigious Gary Manuel school, and began her lifelong career in hair. She married Andy Mower in 2000; they divorced a few years later.

Melody returned to Los Angeles in 2002, and worked at various salons in Hollywood. She soon met her next long term partner, Behzad Khajavi. They were together for about 10 years, and lived in Long Beach area.

Melody and her biological son, Richard Booth, reunited in 2011. From 2011-12, they lived a few blocks away from each other in Long Beach, and they quickly developed a close and loving relationship that persisted for the rest of Melody’s life.

Melody moved to her final home in Hollywood in 2013, where she lived with her beloved cat, Chloe. She enjoyed visits with her son over the next several years in Berkeley, New York, Michigan, and back home in Los Angeles. She was able to travel abroad to Japan and India. She loved to learn, especially about the natural world. She was a loving, devoted, and generous person, even when she had very little and struggled with her health.

Melody had a lifelong struggle with mental health and substance abuse. She began facing serious health problems a few years before she died in her home on May 1, 2025.

Melody will be forever loved and missed by so many people, including her son Richard Booth; her sisters Cherie Guiremand, Diana Viehweg, and Christy House; her brothers-in-law Curtis Viehweg and Ari Margolis; her nieces and nephews; and the many friends, clients, and neighbors she had throughout her life.

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