Obituary: Joanne Marie Casey, 78, Of Ridgefield

Information and Photo Courtesy Jowdy-Kane Funeral Home

RIDGEFIELD, CT — Joanne Marie Casey, 78, of Ridgefield, died peacefully on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024.

Joanne was born on June 29, 1945, in New York, NY; a daughter of the late Rudolph and Dorothea Scheidegger and sister to John Scheidegger and the late Robert Scheidegger.

In third grade, her family moved to Wantagh, NY, where she met her neighbor and future husband, Francis (Frank) Casey, who lived across the cul-de-sac from her. While Frank was always smitten with Joanne, it took a deployment to Vietnam, and countless letters—Joanne even wrote Frank one letter on a whole roll of toilet paper—for their love to truly blossom. Shortly after Frank’s return, they were married.

Joanne put effort into everything she did. She graduated from MacArthur High School and Farmingdale State College. After college, she worked in NYC as a secretary for Esso Chemical. After she was married, she continued as a secretary at Johns Hopkins Nursing School, and her last assignment before retirement was Administrative Assistant to the VP of Human Resources at Perkin Elmer. Joanne was always great at organization and getting things done.

Frank, being in the Army and working for IBM, caused the Caseys to move 7 times before they finally settled into their forever home in Ridgefield, where they lived for the past 37 years. Joanne was very active in the community. She was a parishioner of St. Mary’s. She loved volunteering her time by managing the children’s department of the Ridgefield Thrift Shop. Joanne played and hosted bridge clubs, and she enjoyed water aerobics at the community center. She made friends and was loved by all. Anytime you went out with Joanne, you knew she was going to come across a few friends who wanted to say hello.

Joanne was a card shark and loved to play Solitaire. She couldn’t wait to play Scrabble or go to the casinos to attempt to win at Blackjack with her Texas friends. Joanne was frugal and would only bring $100, but after hours of playing, she even made it back with a few extra dollars…sometimes!
Joanne was quite a hostess who loved getting people together to have a good time. She planned themed dinner parties, Zoom calls with faraway friends, and she LOVED her DE or OBX beach vacations because it brought her whole Casey clan together. Her passion for travel also took Frank and Joanne on many adventures all over the world.

Joanne loved making memories, and she was just as good at preserving them. She took great pride in putting together photo albums of her family and each big trip she took. She passed along this passion by making scrapbooks for her grandchildren. Her family and friends are fortunate to be able to look back on this lifelong gift, and it brings them peace to know Joanne lived a beautiful life full of family, adventures, and most of all, love! She was also an avid collector—she collected everything from antique hats, Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates, roosters, and even Madame Alexander dolls when her daughters were little. She always worked very hard to make the holidays special for her family—whether by hosting the holidays at her home and making elaborate meals or painstakingly wrapping each present with love, all the details mattered.

What Joanne cherished most was her family, Frank, her husband of 54 years, as well as her three children: Kristen Marshall, Meghan Daly, and Katherine Govoro, their spouses: Craig, Patrick, and Ron; and her nine grandchildren: Colin, Erin, Owen, Quinn, Gavin, Casey, Monroe, Willa, and Alma who loved Joanne deeply. When her grandson Quinn first learned to talk, he called her “Peeka” because she always played Peekaboo with him, and the name stuck. She loved to spoil her grandkids. She cheered them on at their sporting events, would let them buy any candy they wanted, took them to Dimitri’s, their favorite diner, let them stay up super late, and even had a box of toys that she let them pick a gift out of every time they came over. Peeka will certainly be missed.

Family and friends will be received on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Kane Funeral Home; 25 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield.

Please note: The funeral mass has been rescheduled to Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. at Saint Mary’s Church; 55 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield. Interment will follow in Saint Mary’s Cemetery; 110 North Street, Ridgefield.

Contributions in Mrs. Casey’s memory may be made to the Ridgefield Thrift Shop, which donates their proceeds to local charities.