Claire Casey

Claire Frances Casey, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, nurse, homemaker, community volunteer, and Catholic, took her last breaths early on the morning of June 21st, 2024, after a sudden, devastating brain aneurysm.

Claire was born February 11, 1939, to Charles and Clarice South, and raised in Santa Clara, California, as the second of five children, including her siblings, Charles, John, Billy, and Mary. She graduated from San Jose State in 1960, with her nursing degree, a vocation that guided her life choices. She married John T. Casey, Jr. on September 3, 1960, and they moved to the Celestial Valley in North San Juan, immediately following their honeymoon.

John and Claire were blessed with four children, Kathleen, Kevin, Mark, and Julie. They moved to Nevada City in 1965, and soon found their forever home on Banner Mountain. At any given time, you could hear children swimming, ice clinking in glasses, oven timers dinging, the distinctive doorbell chimes, and loud stories being retold. The backyard has known weddings, wakes, whiffle ball, baptisms, sledding, and children's 4th of July parades. Her hospitality was far reaching and unforgettable, and it came to its fruition in this sacred place of family.

In no particular order, Claire loved babies, jam making, lectoring at St. Patrick's and St. Canice Masses, walking under the fir and dogwood trees, vacuuming, writing cards to mark endless special events, quilting, delivering Holy Communion to the residents of Atria, shopping at SPD, reading novels for book group, baking, Sunday night family dinners, gardening, and listening to her family banter across a big table. Her interest in other people was genuine, and her faith in God was unshakeable. She was the first to deliver a meal to someone in need, and the last to leave the party.

There is no way to express our deep sadness that she is gone. Our comfort lies in knowing that she is reunited with her beloved John, and many dear friends who passed before her.

Claire is survived by children Kathleen (Jerry) Gianotti , Kevin (Sara) Casey, Mark (Kirsten) Casey, and Julie (Brent) Fraser, eleven grandchildren: Madeleine (Andrew) McHill, Michaela (Lucas) Boyle, Kristen Gianotti, Colin (Lisa) Casey, Molly (Emerson) Wyper, Nick, Hannah, and Ellie Casey, Jane, Jack, and Claire Fraser, three great grandsons, Henry and Owen McHill, and Jack Casey, two great granddaughters, Olivia Casey and Rory Boyle, and a third girl due in November. She is also survived by her siblings and their spouses, Charles (Joanne) South, John South, Mary (Dino) Certa, her honorary lifelong brother of the heart, Father Jerry Wade, S.J., and numerous nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, her brother Billy, and her husband, John.

A funeral liturgy will be celebrated at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Grass Valley, on Wednesday, July 3rd, at 11:00 am.

If you wish to honor Claire, donate to Hospice of the Foothills, where she served as a nurse. Also, she would love it if you made time to write a card to someone you love, bake some cookies, take a long walk, or say a prayer, and think of her.