Eileen M. Casey, 90, Food Co-op Founder

Eileen M. Casey of Bowie, MD, passed away on March 21, 2013 at the age of 90.

Mrs. Casey was in excellent health until the past few weeks, when she was diagnosed with an untreatable abdominal tumor. While in hospice care at home, she was at peace and until the last few days, happily received many visitors.

Over the years, Mrs. Casey had been a founding member of a food co-op through which many area families for years purchased food wholesale. She had led a Bluebird troop, cooked dishes for the Washington, DC soup kitchen So Others Might Eat, volunteered there and at The House on the Hill, a program at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Bowie which provides clothing and household goods for needy persons, and was a member of the parish Sodality.

Always artistic, she had until recent years painted, done a little decoupage and been a prolific ceramist. She showed her ceramic work at the Maryland State Fair in Timonium. At Christmas, her ceramic Nativity set is displayed in the historical chapel at Sacred Heart.

Not for nothing did her late husband of 62 years, Eugene H. Casey, call her Gypsy. Quite the traveler, once she had gone on a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary site in Medjugorie in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the overseas travel bug had her for many years. She went on several more trips to Europe and once to Israel.

She was a soprano in the Bowie Senoir Chorale 2010-11.

Eileen was born at home in Brooklyn NY on Dec. 26, 1922. Her father, William J. Quigley, worked in labor relations for Western Union where he met Ann R. Mulcahy. The two married and when Eileen was 2 moved with her and her 7-year-old brother William Jr. to Mineola NY, where Eileen grew up. She graduated from St. Dominic’s High School in Oyster Bay, NY in 1941 and from St. Joseph’s College for Women in Brooklyn with a B.A. in child study in 1945. After college, she worked at Bethlehem Day Nursery in New York, a private nursery school and kindergarten near the United Nations that served children from many countries.

While in college, Eileen became engaged to Eugene, of Brooklyn, who was serving in the U.S. Marines. The two had met through friends when they were in their mid-teens. They were married Dec. 28, 1946 and lived on Long Island while Eugene worked as a printer for Newsday. Their first nine children were born during that time.

The family moved to Maryland when Eugene went to work for the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, DC. In 1962, the couple bought a house in the new Levitt development of Belair at Bowie. The family grew by five more children.

When the youngest children were all in school, Eileen and Eugene bought a travel trailer and camped with them and their oldest grandchild – with an occasional older son or daughter coming along – up and down the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.

Eugene died in 2009, just about three months short of their 63rd wedding anniversary.

Eileen was also predeceased by her brother, the couple's son-in-law Gary Baumann, and their grandson Michael.

Survivors include two sisters-in-law, Louise O'Callaghan of Brooklyn and Virginia Casey of Westbury NY, the 14 children, 26 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. They are:

Daughter Kathleen of Charles Town, WV.

Daughter Colleen and her husband Douglas Pattison and their son Romney of Pasadena.

Son Sean and Julia, his children Andreas, Sinead, Elijah and Georgia, and Andreas' wife Brandi and their children Abbrianna, Brayleigh and Broccan, all of Cairo GA.

Daughter Deirdre Chapman and Paul of Fort Ashby WV; Deirdre's son Matthew Briggs of Crofton; their son Paul Jr. and his daughter Sophia and their daughter Jillian all of Gambrills.

Son Terence and Paula and their daughters Emily and Meredith of Bowie.

Son Rory and Joyce of Davidsonville, their son Daniel, his wife Allison and their sons Aiden and Declan of Arnold.

Son Kevin and Mary Elizabeth of Washington DC, and Kevin's daughter Marlaina of Amman, Jordan. Kevin's son, Michael, died in 2010.

Son Michael and Pamela and their son Taylor, his wife Dana and their children Riley and TJ all of Davidsonville; their daughter Erin and her husband Richard of Millersville; their son Marshall of Charlottesville VA and his fiance'e Sarah Robinson of Sykesville; and their daughter Shannon of Edgewater. 
Son Patrick and Stephanie of Bowie, their sons Jeffrey and Christopher and his daughter Jocelyn, all of Crofton.

Daughter Ann Baumann of Berlin MD her son Zachary Flynn of Deland FL and her daughter Elizabeth of Baltimore.

Daughter Jeanine and Steven Frizalone of Mitchellville.

Daughter Eileen LaPlanche and David, their daughter Casey and her fiance Patrick Cassidy; their son Travis and his son Saige, all of Pasadena.
Son Eugene and Lori and their son Eugene IV of Centreville MD.

Daughter Siobhan and her sons Kenneth Jr., Nicholas and Joseph Gary of Edgewater.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Robert E. Evans Funeral Home, 16000 Annapolis Rd. Bowie MD 20715; (301) 464-8836. Friends may call at the funeral home 2-4pm and 6-8 p.m. Friday April 5. A Mass of Christian burial is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Saturday, April 6 at Sacred Heart Church. A guest book has been set up at www.dignitymemorial.com. 

Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of the Chesapeake, 445 Defense Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401; (410) 987-2003.