Lori Ellen Elizabeth Anderson Casey

Mrs. Casey was born in Cheverly MD, daughter of Bill and the late Myra Anderson. She grew up in Bowie MD to become a fun-loving person who played the guitar and loved to sing and dance. She graduated in 1979 from Old Mill High School in Millersville MD. After high school, Mrs. Casey moved to Colorado, where she lived for five years before returning to Bowie.

At first, Mrs. Casey held various accounting jobs. When she married Eugene H. Casey III of Bowie in 1997, the newlyweds bought a farm outside Centreville MD. They named the farm Seventh Son Acres because her husband is the seventh son of his late parents, Eugene and Eileen Casey of Bowie.

The couple established a greenhouse business on the farm, where they raised flowering annual plants that made their way to big box stores regionally. The business continues to thrive.

Mrs. Casey, in addition to working in the greenhouses, keeping house and gardening, took care of the payroll, bookkeeping, insurance and other business matters. She kept a small flock of specialty chickens. For a while, she and a partner grew organic herbs and vegetables which they sold to restaurants in the area. Mrs. Casey raised beef cattle and maintained a flock of sheep. She enjoyed making pies, jellies and wine from fruit grown on the farm.

Not surprisingly, she gained the reputation in her family circle of being a stupendously hard worker.

There was a lot of fun and family time in her life, too. The couple began holding an annual fall pig roast, an occasion which relatives, friends and neighbors look forward to. Occasionally they hosted Easter dinner for both the Anderson and Casey families.

In 2004, the couple had a son, Eugene H. Casey IV.

Around the same time, the slow-growing cancer, which originated in a parotid gland and appeared to have been beaten, recurred, and metastasized over the next few years. Mrs. Casey, in the words of her older sister, Lainie Kell, "fought a good fight so that she could be with her son and husband for as long as she could."

When her son was born, Mrs. Casey joined the Chesapeake Moms Club. She was an active member in little Eugene's pre-school years. Club members rendered invaluable assistance when Mrs. Casey was away for treatments.

There was much additional good family and recreational time during those years, such as when the little family of three went out on their pontoon boat on the Chester River after work and when they spent summer vacations in Maine.

Mrs. Casey was pre-deceased by her mother. She is survived by her father and her stepmother, Joanne Anderson, of Reedville VA; her husband and son; sister Lainie and husband Jay Kell and their children Allie and Roy of Easton MD; brother John Anderson and wife Marianne and their children Kelly, Jake and Jamie of Bowie; brother Michael Anderson of Laurel MD; and stepsister Erynn Jenkins Powers of Bowie; Mr. Casey's seven sisters, six brothers, their spouses, children and grandchildren.

A convert to Catholicism, Mrs. Casey was a member of Mother of Sorrows Church in Centreville.

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Bowie MD.

Mrs. Casey requested that anyone wishing to make a memorial donation do so to the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation, PO Box 442, Needham MA 02494. Donations may also be made directly at ACCRF.org.