Posted: 2/5/03

Grace Casey remembered as a quintessential working mom

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

By all accounts, Grace Casey was a quintessential working mom who found time for a family and a working career.

Casey, 83, who spent most of her life in Forest Lake, died on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2002. She lived at the Margaret S. Parmly Home in Chisago City the past several years.

Casey grew up in Forest Lake, graduated from high school here, married a local man and spent her entire life in Forest Lake working and helping raise four sons.

Lillian Grace Forsberg was born May 21, 1919 in Chisago City and moved to Forest Lake as a young girl. She attended all 12 grades of school here, graduating with honors in 1937.

During high school, she was an honor student, class president, Homecoming queen and won the American Legion Award of Merit given by Legion Post 225 in Forest Lake.

ìShe was a leader in her class,î said a son, Tim Casey.

During her work life, she was employed at Rolseth Drug, a local dental clinic, the Forest Lake Times and Forest Lake High School where she worked in the guidance and principalís offices.

Her work career with the high school spanned nearly a decade. She started at the school on Aug. 25, 1969 and retired on March 16, 1977.

She held two employment stints with the newspaper. She handled office duties and wrote a column called ìComings and Goings.î As a columnist, she collected news about Forest Lakeís people on a neighborhood basis. Much of information was collected by telephone from home.

She wrote the column during periods when the newspaper was published by Earl Lellman and Duane Rasmussen.

Family values

While work was important to Casey, family came first, her son said.

ìIt was always family first with her,î Casey said. ìShe put the family ahead of her needs and wants.î

She married Milo ìMikeî Casey on Feb. 22, 1941. They met in Forest Lake after Casey, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources employee, was assigned to Carlos Avery.

Four sons were born to the union.

As a working mom, Casey always found time to share with the boys and their friends. Tim Casey said for many of the Casey friends, Grace ìwas like a second mom.î

The four sons all went through Forest Lake High School graduating in 1960, 1965, 1967 and 1970.

Funeral details

A funeral service for Lillian Grace Casey was Friday, Jan. 31 at Faith Lutheran Church, Forest Lake. Interment was at Scandinavian Cemetery, Forest Lake.

She is survived by four sons and their wives, Michael (Carole), Shoreview, Patrick (Suzanne), Forest Lake, Timothy (Susan), East Bethel, and Kevin (Mary), Apple Valley; grandchildren Megan, Brian, Erin, Jessica, Andrew and Sean; 13 cousins and nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Mike, in 1991 after 50 years of marriage; her father, Edward Forsberg and her mother and step-father, Anna and Clem Dupree, brothers Carl and Arthur Forsberg, and one sister, Doris Forsberg.

Memorials to the family are preferred.

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