Mary Kathryn Casto

1938-2025

Gardener, cyclist, reader, mother, grandmother: Mary Casto slipped quietly out of a rich, long life on April 2, 2025. She was the fifth of eight children of Gerrit and Matilda Elfrink, who immigrated to the U.S. from Belgium and the Netherlands after WW1. Mary grew up on their dairy farm in Madison County and graduated from Fairfield School. She married Robert Casto and together they raised seven children: Kathy, Robin (Wesolek), Bob, Ben, Frances, Pat and Eric. After they divorced in 1990, Mary embarked on a new life of her own. She bought a house in Grove City and in her late forties became a dedicated cyclist: she loved the double-century Tour of the Scioto River Valley and travelled on her bike through Tennessee and Wisconsin with the Granny Gears, a group of like-minded women. She also relished travel with family–to Florida, Chicago, the Outer Banks. She visited her oldest daughter, Kathy, in Oregon every summer, and together they camped in the mountains and hiked through the Columbia Gorge and on the coast; in 1996, they travelled to France and trekked through the Alps. Mary was also a loving grandmother. She shared her passion for reading and movies with all her grandchildren, and she raised her grandson Ben after he came to live with her as an infant. Mary enjoyed euchre, her pets and the daily crossword in the Dispatch. She was devoted to her family and made her home a place of refuge and welcome. In lieu of donations or flowers, please honor Mary with a toast and a smile at the spring birds and redbuds that she loved.