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     Emily Jones was born circa 1871 at Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.¹ She was scholar in 1881 at scholar.¹ She lived in 1881 at Albert Street, Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.¹ Emily Jones was at an unknown age as of 1881; 10.¹

     Agnes Jones was born circa 1878 at Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.¹ She was (an unknown value) in 1881 at scholar at home.¹ She lived in 1881 at Albert Street, Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.¹ Agnes Jones was at an unknown age as of 1881.¹

     Sarah Saxton was born circa 1817 at Barnsley, Yorkshire, England.¹ She lived in 1881 at Albert Street, Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England; In the 1881 census, she was listed as a widow and living with her daughter and son-in-law and family.¹ Sarah Saxton was at an unknown age as of 1881.¹

     Elizabeth G. Ganal married Raymond L. Dicker.¹

     Raymond L. Dicker married Elizabeth G. Ganal.¹

     Gary Woirhaye married Valerie Elizabeth Dicker, daughter of Robert Dicker and Elizabeth Casey, on 1 September 2007 at Elizabeth, Colorado; They were married in a beautiful otside ceremony at a ranch.¹

     Kristin Andres Levitskie married Edward Raymond Dicker, son of Robert Dicker and Elizabeth Casey, on 11 November 1999 at the Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, Nevada.¹

     Mary Margaret Thomas married William J. Casey III, son of William Joseph Casey Jr and Barbara Cole, on 21 October 2006.¹

     Geraldine Caffrey married John Fagan Sr.¹

     John Fagan Sr. married Geraldine Caffrey, daughter of John Caffrey and Anna Casey.¹

     Robert P. Casey

Robert Patrick Casey, Sr. (January 9, 1932 – May 30, 2000), better known as Bob Casey (or Bob Casey, Sr. to distinguish him from his son) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served Pennsylvania in several capacities, most notably as its 44th Governor from 1987 to 1995. He is best known for leading the pro-life wing of the Democratic Party, and for taking the lead in fighting Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a major Supreme Court course case that upheld almost all the prohibitions on abortion that he signed into law. Casey was an Irish American Democrat "pol" of the old school, the son and grandson of coal miners, who championed unions and believed in government as a beneficent force. In a state that reveres deer-hunting, he was gun-friendly.[1]

He is the father of Bob Casey, Jr., who is currently a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

Early life
Born in Jackson Heights, Queens, Casey grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Marie Cummings and Alphonsus Liguori Casey, a devoutly Roman Catholic former coal miner who began working as a coal miner at age 10 and began practicing law by age 40.

Bob Casey turned down an offer to play for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1949, opting to go to college instead. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in 1953, and received his Juris Doctor from George Washington University in 1956.

Political career

Unsuccessful tries for Governor
A member of the Democratic Party, Casey first sought the office of Governor of Pennsylvania in 1966, losing the Democratic Party primary. He tried on two other occasions without success, in 1970 and again in 1978. Considered a moderate and despite growing frustration with Democratic Party policies, Casey rejected Republican offers to run for Governor on their ticket on two occasions.

Mistaken identity
Restricted from seeking another term as Auditor General, Casey declined to seek the office of State Treasurer in 1976. Instead, a county official who also was named Robert Casey won the Democratic primary and the general election, spending virtually no money and doing virtually no campaigning; voters merely assumed that they were voting for the outgoing Auditor General.[citation needed] In 1980 the Republicans launched an extensive advertising campaign to clarify that "Casey isn't Casey," and the Democratic state treasurer was defeated for re-election.

In 1978, yet another candidate named Robert Casey, a different Robert Casey, this one a teacher and ice cream parlor owner, likewise received the Democratic party's nomination for Lieutenant Governor, again with a no-spending, no-campaigning strategy. This Casey, who joined Democratic gubernatorial nominee Pete Flaherty, narrowly lost to Richard Thornburgh and William Scranton III.


1986 gubernatorial campaign

Robert P. Casey campaigning in Pittsburgh, 1986. Photo by Michael Casey.After a decade practicing law, Casey made a fourth bid for governor in 1986, billing himself as the "real Bob Casey" to distinguish himself and make light of the mistaken identity follies of the past. Dubbed "the three-time loss from Holy Cross" by detractors, Casey hired James Carville and Paul Begala to his campaign staff, two then-generally unknown political strategists.

Unlike his three previous tries, Casey won the Democratic primary, defeating Philadelphia district attorney (and future governor) Ed Rendell. He then faced Thornburgh's lieutenant governor, William Scranton III in the general election. The race was considered too close to call until the week before the election, when the Casey campaign staff, led by Carville, launched the now infamous "guru ad" which attacked Scranton's practice of transcendental meditation. The ad campaign depicted Scranton as a "dope smoking hippie," complete with 1960s-era pictures of the lieutenant governor wearing long hair, a beard, and tie-dyed clothing. Casey defeated Scranton by a margin of 79,000 votes.


Governor

Governor Casey with Congressman John Murtha.Inaugurated on January 20, 1987, Casey was immediately confronted with issues. R. Budd Dwyer, the State Treasurer who had been convicted on charges of accepting kickbacks, committed suicide at a press conference just two days into his term.

Casey brought what he called an "activist government" to Pennsylvania, expanding health care services for women, introducing reforms to the state's welfare system, and introducing an insurance program for uninsured children. Casey also introduced a "capital for a day" program, where the state's official business was conducted from eighteen different communities throughout the state. Despite charges that his administration squandered a budget surplus and ran the state into record annual budget deficits, Casey remained popular with voters, easily winning re-election in 1990 against pro-choice Republican nominee Barbara Hafer. Polling data show that abortion attitudes were a stronger predictor of vote choice than party affiliation. [2]

As a socially-conservative Catholic, Governor Casey was a staunch pro-lifer. The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference demanded action on the abortion issue.[3] In 1989 Casey pushed through the legislature the "Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act," which placed limitations on abortion, including the notification of parents of minors, a twenty-four-hour waiting period, and a ban on partial-birth procedures except in cases of risk to the mother's life. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania sued, with Casey as the named defendant, asserting that the law violated Roe v. Wade. The case went to the Supreme Court in April, 1992. The Court decided Planned Parenthood v. Casey on June 29th, upholding all of Pennsylvania's contested restrictions but one (a requirement for spousal notification) and affirming the right of states to restrict abortions. [4]

As of capital punishment, Governor Casey signed 21 death warrants, but none of them were enforced[5], and Pennsylvania resumed executions under Casey's successor Tom Ridge. Prosecutors have often criticized the slowness of the review process under Casey, and he signed only two death warrant after May, 1991[6].

Casey signed on November 29, 1990 a bill that eliminated electric chair as a method of executions in Pennsylvania, replacing by lethal injection[7].


1992 Democratic National Convention controversy
Because he considered abortion a key social issue for the 1992 presidential election, Casey sought a speaking slot to give a minority plank on the topic at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. He was not given a speaking spot[8] and in a series of news conferences he said the party was censoring his pro-life views since he agreed with the party on nearly all other issues.[9] In fact, Casey was denied a speaking slot because he had refused to endorse the Clinton-Gore ticket.[10][11][12][13] After the convention, Casey went on vacation rather than campaign for Clinton in Pennsylvania, which was a key swing state. He also refused to say whether he would campaign for the Democratic nominee though he told the New York Times, "I support the ticket. Period."[14] Although several pro-life Democrats did speak at the convention, they did not focus their remarks on their opposition to abortion, and the issue was not debated the way Casey had wanted.[11]


U.S. Senate politics
On April 4, 1991, Governor Casey was faced with filling a vacancy in the U.S. Senate when Republican U.S. Senator John Heinz died in a plane crash. After briefly considering appointing Chrysler Corporation Chairman Lee Iacocca, an Allentown, Pennsylvania native, Casey settled on state Secretary of Labor and Industry and former Kennedy functionary Harris Wofford (despite private fears that he was too liberal for rural Pennsylvania voters). [15] According to former Casey press secretary Vince Carocci, the Governor insisted on two conditions:

First Harris would bring Carville and crew on to manage his campaign for election; second, when the issue of abortion came up as it inevitably would, Harris would proclaim his support for the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, which already had its constitutionality upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.[16]

With those assurances in hand, Governor Casey appointed Wofford to the Senate, and then vigorously supported him in Wofford's uphill fight to remain in the Senate against former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh in the special election held that fall. Thanks in large part to Casey's fundraising prowess and Carville's political ability, Senator Wofford scored an upset victory over Thornburgh.

However, Casey and Wofford came into conflict during the early Clinton administration, when Wofford refused a personal plea by Casey to support an amendment similar to a provision in Casey's Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act. Casey made it very clear that if Wofford opposed the amendment, the Governor would withhold his support in Wofford's next Senate election. Wofford supported the amendment, and was defeated in the 1994 election by upstart conservative Congressman Rick Santorum. [17]

The footnote to this story came years after Governor Casey's death. By 2005, the Governor's son, Bob Casey, Jr., had served two terms as Auditor General and had been elected State Treasurer the year before, crushing his opponent with over 3.3 million votes. Despite the younger Casey's pro-life views, National Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, heavily recruited him to run in the 2006 election against Santorum, by now the number-three Republican in the Senate. Casey went on to win a landslide victory over Santorum. [18]


Illness
During his second term, Casey was diagnosed with Appalachian familiar amyloidosis, a genetic condition where proteins invade and destroy bodily organs. To combat the disease, he underwent an extremely rare heart-liver transplant on the morning of June 14, 1993 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The announcement of Casey's disease was made just days before he underwent the transplant, and as a result many accused him of receiving preferential treatment with respect to donor waiting lists. In fact, Casey had been on the list for over a year, but this information was not widely known.

Before undergoing the operation, he transferred executive authority to Lieutenant Governor Singel, marking the first time Pennsylvania was under the leadership of an acting governor. Casey resumed his duties on December 13, 1993, almost six months to the day after he underwent the operation.

Following his operation, Casey strongly supported legislation that encouraged organ transplants by guaranteeing access to the families of potential organ donors by organ recovery organizations, providing drivers' license identification of potential donors, and establishing an organ donation trust fund from voluntary donations to promote the benefits of organ donation. Today the organ donation trust fund is named in his honor.


Post-political career
Prohibited from seeking a third term, Bob Casey left office on January 17, 1995 but contemplated a run for President to oppose Bill Clinton in the 1996 Democratic primaries. His failing health caused him to abandon his plans.

Despite the transplants, Casey continued to suffer long-term effects of his disease, to which he finally succumbed on May 30, 2000, at the age of 68. His survivors were his wife of fifty years, Ellen and his eight children Margaret, Mary Ellen, Kathleen, Bobby, Chris, Erin, Patrick and Matt. He was also survived by his 28 grandchildren and his brother John.

Casey's oldest son, Bob Casey, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps, being elected to two terms as Pennsylvania's Auditor General. In 2002 he sought the Governor's office, but was defeated in the Democratic primary by Ed Rendell. In 2005, he was sworn in as State Treasurer.

Twenty years after Casey, Sr. was elected governor of Pennsylvania, on November 7, 2006, Casey, Jr. defeated incumbent Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum.


References
Abramowitz, Alan I. "It's Abortion, Stupid: Policy Voting in the 1992 Presidential Election." Journal of Politics 1995 57(1): 176-186.
Elizabeth Adell Cook, Ted G. Jelen, Clyde Wilcox, "Issue Voting in Gubernatorial Elections: Abortion and Post-Webster Politics". The Journal of Politics Vol. 56, No. 1 (Feb., 1994), pp. 187-199.
Peter J Boyer. "The Right to Choose," The New Yorker November 14, 2005 online version
Vincent P. Carocci, A Capitol Journey: Reflections on the Press, Politics, and the Making Of Public Policy In Pennsylvania. (2005) memoir by senior aide excerpts online
Casey, Robert P. Fighting for Life: The Story of a Courageous Pro-Life Democrat Whose Own Brush with Death Made Medical History. Dallas, Texas: Word Publishing (1996). Autobiography. Hardcover: ISBN 0-849-91224-5, ISBN 978-0-84991-224-5.

Footnotes
^ Boyer 2005
^ Cook, Ted G. Jelen, Clyde Wilcox (1994); Ted G. Jelen, Perspectives on the politics of abortion (1995) p. 76
^ Ted G. Jelen, Perspectives on the politics of abortion (1995) p. 112
^ Boyer 2005
^ Execution Warrants Issued by Governor (1985 to Present)
^ http://www.sailor.lib.md.us/md/docs/death_pen/chapter.5.txt
^ Death Penalty in Pennsylvania - Statistics & History of Capital Punishment in PA
^ Shailagh Murray (January 21, 2007). "Democrats Seek to Avert Abortion Clashes". The Washington Post.
^ Carocci 2005
^ Peter J Boyer (November 14, 2005). "The Right to Choose". The New Yorker.
^ a b Michael Crowley, "Casey Closed," The New Republic, September 16, 1996.
^ Media Matters, 29 June 2004
^ Bob Somersby, "The Daily Howler", April 2, 2008
^ Michael Decourcy Hinds, “Pennsylvania; Democratic Ticket Heads Into Fertile Territory,” New York Times July 19, 1992, Section 1, Page 20
^ http://www.vincecarocci.com/excerpt14.htm
^ http://www.vincecarocci.com/excerpt14.htm
^ http://www.vincecarocci.com/excerpt14.htm
^ Michael E. Barone, The Almanac of American Politics: 2006 (2005) p 1424.²

Governor Robert P. Casey (1932-2000)
January 20, 1987–January 17, 1995
Democrat 
Robert Patrick Casey was born in Jackson Heights, New York on January 9, 1932 to Alphonsus (“Al”) L. and Marie Cummings Casey. Governor Casey’s great grandfather, Edward, emigrated from Ireland during the “great hunger” of 1851 and eventually settled in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region. Casey grew up in Scranton where his father practiced law. Al Casey had worked in a coal mine as a boy and as a laborer until finishing high school as a non-traditional student. Later he enrolled in and completed a law program at Fordham University in New York for individuals who did not hold a college degree. Returning to his native Scranton the elder Casey quickly earned a reputation as an exceptional lawyer who represented working people and aggrieved mineworkers. He was also active in county Democratic politics.
Influenced by his father, “Spike,” as the younger Casey was widely known, graduated in 1949 from the Scranton Preparatory School where he was elected president of the senior class and head of student council. An avid athlete, Casey played baseball, headed the school’s varsity basketball squad, and was named one of the top five basketball players in Lackawanna County. His athletic talents earned him a tryout with the Philadelphia Phillies though he relinquished the offer to attend The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. There he earned a degree in English, cum laude, in 1953. Following graduation he married Scranton native Ellen Harding. The couple relocated to Washington, D.C. where Casey attended law school at the George Washington University on a trustee scholarship.
Casey received his J.D. in 1956, practiced law in the nation’s capitol, and then returned to Scranton where he won election as a state senator in 1962. With the backing of the state Democratic Party he sought the governorship in 1966 and lost the primary to television cable mogul Milton J. Shapp who, in turn, lost the general election that year to outgoing Governor William W. Scranton’s lieutenant governor Raymond P. Shafer. In 1968, after serving as first vice president of the state constitutional convention, Casey was elected by a 440,000-vote margin as auditor general, the Commonwealth’s taxpayer watchdog. Two years later, at age thirty-eight, Casey sought the governor’s office for a second time with the endorsement of state Democrats. Once again, however, the primary went to Milton Shapp who won the office in November 1970. Casey was reelected auditor general in 1972 by a half-million vote margin in year when Republican presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon carried Pennsylvania by nearly a million votes. Few criticized the work Casey did as auditor general. He was credited with ending corrupt practices that had plagued the office for decades, hiring certified public accountants, investigating fraudulent use of state money, and saving Pennsylvania taxpayers millions of dollars. The reputation for integrity that Casey had earned caused one Philadelphia newspaper to refer to him as “too honest a politician” for the Keystone State.
Constitutionally limited to two terms, Casey left the auditor general’s office in January 1977, returned to private law practice, and sought the governorship for a third time in 1978. The Democratic primary that year went to Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty who lost the general election to Dick Thornburgh. For the next several years Casey practiced law with the Philadelphia-based firm of Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, and Kaufman, managing its Scranton office.
Though it appeared that Thornburgh’s heir was his lieutenant governor and native Lackawanna County resident William W. Scranton III, Casey launched an aggressive campaign in 1986. He secured the primary election by defeating Philadelphia’s district attorney Edward Rendell. Time magazine dubbed the Casey v. Scranton race as a “coal town contest”. In one of the closest gubernatorial elections in Commonwealth history, Casey defeated Scranton in the November general election by a 79,000- vote margin. On January 20, 1987, he became the fifth Democrat in the twentieth century to be sworn into the governor’s office vowing to bring an activist government to Harrisburg. Casey won re-election in 1990 by defeating Auditor General Barbara Hafer by nearly 1.2 million votes—the largest margin that any Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate had yet secured.
During the 1980s and 1990s the Commonwealth continued its economic transition from heavy industry to service and technology. Steel mills closed following the lead of coalmines, apparel and textile factories, and manufacturers of many sorts. Health care, service industries, retailing, and technology gradually replaced the once prosperous industrial-based Pennsylvania economy. Coupled with a national recession in the early 1990s some communities experienced double-digit unemployment rates while the Commonwealth saw its largest budget deficit in the twentieth century.
Casey professed that government had an obligation to sustain and protect children, families, workers, businesses, and the environment and that doing so would ensure and economic stability growth. Among other initiatives, his administration invested $3 billion to create new jobs, reduced business taxes, and implemented numerous programs for children including the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and a statewide adoption network. Investments in the Commonwealth’s infrastructure included completion of the 1,600-mile interstate highway system and implementation of the PENNVEST loan and grant program to aid communities in improving public water and sewer systems. Other Casey legacies include the PENNFREE anti-drug and alcohol abuse program, the largest recycling program in the nation, reforms to control the rising cost of auto and workers’ compensation insurance, expansion of health care services for women, reforms to the welfare system, and creation of the heritage park program.
Not one to shun the public eye or controversy, Casey’s “Capital for a Day” program took state government to eighteen communities across the Commonwealth.
He advocated and signed an abortion control statute that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law earned him scorn in some corners and praise in others. An unwavering right-to-life advocate, Casey refused to endorse politicians or policies that favored a women’s right to choose; a position that endeared anger among many Democrats. In addition, despite the General Assembly’s approval of Casey’s proposed constitutional amendment to revamp the local taxation system, voters handily rejected the measure at the polls. His administration was also criticized for securing enactment of a large tax increase to balance the state budget in 1991.
At nearly the same time as his 1990 reelection Casey was diagnosed with Appalachian familial amyloidosis, a genetic condition in which proteins invade and destroy major bodily organs. In June 1993 he underwent a very rare heart-liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in an effort to cure the disease. He became one of the few people worldwide to survive for several years following the procedure. Casey left office in January 1995 and considered a run for the presidency in 1996 though his health became a dissuading factor. He was succeeded by Erie Congressman Tom Ridge who ran against Casey’s lieutenant governor Mark Singel. Despite his public popularity, Casey was criticized by many in his own party for refusing to endorse Singel as the two disagreed on the abortion issue. Some blamed Casey for Singel’s loss and the ensuing disarray of the state’s Democratic Party.
The former state senator, auditor general, and governor retired to Scranton where he completed and published an autobiography, Fighting for Life, in 1996. Governor Casey died on May 30, 2000 from the long-term effects of amyloidosis. In addition to his wife Ellen he was survived by eight children: Margaret, Mary Ellen, Kathleen, Robert Jr., Christopher, Erin, Patrick, and Matthew; twenty-eight grandchildren, and his brother John.³ Robert Patrick Casey Sr. married Ellen Harding.² Robert Patrick Casey Sr. was born on 9 January 1932 at Jackson Heights, Queens, New York.² He was graduated in 1953 at College of the Holy Cross; B.A.² He was degree in 1956 at George Washington University, Juirs Doctor.² He was the 44th Governor of Pennsylvnaia between 20 January 1987 and 17 January 1995 at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.² He was ill with amyloidosis in 1993


The New York Times
June 15, 1993
Governor Casey Has Transplants

Doctors performed a high-risk heart-liver transplant on Gov. Robert P. Casey of Pennsylvania today in hopes of curing a fatal disease. They said the heart pumped properly and the liver worked well after the 13-hour operation.

"The procedure was essentially flawless," said Dr. John Armitage, who handled the heart transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "The organs were working excellently. We could not have hoped for anything better." The heart and liver, from a 34-year-old man, were of exceptional quality, he said.

Mr. Casey has "a road ahead of him that is not predictable," said Dr. John Fung, who handled the liver transplant.

The Governor was moved to an intensive care unit and will remain there for at least the next few days, doctors said.

The transplant was the 61-year-old Governor's last hope for beating amyloidosis, a genetic liver disease that was destroying his original heart and liver.

The damage that the disease inflicted on Mr. Casey's heart was so severe that he could have died from a heart attack at any moment, said Dr. Armitage. The electrical charge that regulates the heartbeat was a third of what it should have been and could have caused a sudden irregular heartbeat or heart failure.

Doctors had already determined that Mr. Casey needed a liver transplant, but weekend tests showed that his heart was not strong enough for that operation alone.

Mr. Casey agreed Sunday to the double transplant and learned late Sunday that a possible donor had been found, said his spokesman, Vincent Carocci.

A heart-liver transplant has been performed one known time on an amyloidosis patient, a 62-year-old man who had the surgery at Harefield Hospital near London last year. So far, the patient is doing fine, the hospital said.

Other patients have struggled after heart-liver transplants, a procedure pioneered at the Pittsburgh hospital in 1984 and performed on four other patients there. All but one died within months.⁴

After his transplant, Governor Casey published a book entitled Fighting for Life, about his experience. (Thomas Nelson Publisher, May 21, 1996, ISBN: 978-0849912245).⁵
He died on 30 May 2000 at Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, at age 68. The following obituary was published on 1 June 2000, at The Wall Street Journal, New York, New York, [CR:]
A Democrat who never stopped championing the weak
Scully, Matthew
"A pro-life Democrat can't lose," Bob Casey used to say of the presidency. His theory was that the Democratic Party had lost its way, abandoned its calling to protect the weak and forgotten and powerless. Millions of Republicans were former Democrats or the sons and daughters of Democrats, uneasy in their new allegiances. One brave primary challenge would call them home. The Democratic establishment is pro-choice by necessity, he always said. but the Republican establishment is pro-choice in its heart.
He was going to take this stand himself in the 1996 presidential primaries, until, on the day before his formal announcement, he discovered signs of the sickness that took his life Tuesday. He felt a deep weariness just "done in"-- and looked it too. It was just two years earlier that, as governor of Pennsylvania, he had undergone the heart-liver transplant that at once spared him and sentenced him to more years of trial. The 1996 campaign, like his theory, had a grand implausibility to it: A dying man would take on a popular incumbent president in the cause of life.
But he had a way about him that made you a believer, and his own life had been a relentless defying of the odds. Thrice defeated as a candidate for governor, written off by opponents as "the three-time loss from Holy Cross," he tried again in 1986 with the slogan "Bob Casey is back-and so is Pennsylvania:' He narrowly won. Scorned in his own party by 1990, he defeated a prochoice Republican by one million votes, carrying every county but one. Sued by Planned Parenthood over Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act, he fought to see the law upheld, emerging from the Supreme Court in April 1992 to ask: "In this debate, who speaks for the child? Today I have come here to say that Pennsylvania speaks for the child."
Above all, he was the son of his father. You had only to hear him mention this revered figure, Alphonsus Liguori Casey, to understand where all that passion came from, that raw, visceral identification with the weak and lowly.
Orphaned at age 11, Alphonsus had been forced to support his brothers and sisters by working as a mule boy in the anthracite coal mines of Scranton, studying at night to get through high school and, though he didn't attend college, somehow earning a law degree in his 30s. He then set up practice representing miners in their claims against the company. Robert Casey's earliest memory was of the scarred hands of his father, and all his life these hands guided him as a model of courageous manhood.
He called me once, when we were working on his 1996 autobiography, in great excitement over a passage in a book he had just found. It was a description of a Scranton coal mine by Stephen Crane. I can still hear the powerful feeling, that indignation in his voice, as he read of the conditions his father had endured:
"It was a journey that held the threat of endlessness," as Crane described entering the mine. "Before us stretched an inscrutable darkness, a soundless place of tangible loneliness. . . . Man is in the implacable grasp of nature. It has only to tighten slightly, and he is crushed like a bug. His loudest shriek of agony would be as impotent as his final moan to bring help from the fair land that lies, like Heaven, over his head."
Gov. Casey was a man who understood such things, the struggles and terrors and vulnerability of life. He was given some special gift for empathy even before he was called to endure so much himself. For him, as for so many Democrats at one time, it seemed the most natural connection to extend that merciful spirit to the unborn child, the most innocent life on earth, to rise in protest against this "ultimate exploitation of the weak by the strong."
I never heard him speak a cruel word of anyone, but when he talked of the abortion industry, mocking its terms of "defective" children and "terminations" and "hard cases," it was with utter contempt. It was a language he didn't understand, a spirit alien to everything he believed and his party once professed. Abortion, he always said, is not a question of when life begins. It is a question of when love begins. "No insignificant person was ever born, and no insignificant person ever dies."
Of fellow Democrats, who had once stood for the same ideals, he spoke with a certain pity. They knew better. They had made a fatal compromise. And one day they would regret it.
With his sickness, an inherited disease known as familial amyloidosis, he faced an inscrutable darkness of his own. Told that there was no cure, he began a methodical campaign against the enemy, finding in time the one doctor who believed there was hope. "He was like a guy in a tiny prison and all by himself," said his heart surgeon, Thomas Starzl. "And with no help from anyone, he figured a way to get out. It was remarkable how he grabbed on to the last rung of life on his way down the chute and pulled himself back to the top."
The governor liked this image, the last rung, as a symbol of the helplessness and desperation of the weak. "I felt myself a witness at the approach of the presidential campaign," he said after the 1996 election. "Down to the very bottom rung, all these hands had reached down to pull me back. Why can't we bring the same resources, the same mercy, to helping young mothers and their children? No one can ever persuade me that the situation is hopeless, that we must simply write off the unborn child, that the whole problem is beyond salvaging. I know better. We have the means of salvaging it. I have seen it."
He looked like a president, everyone said, with that silver hair and grave bearing, a distinguished son of the working class. As it turns out, he was destined for an even higher role. He was to be a witness not for power but against it, to speak the truth and then to suffer it. He died at Scranton's Mercy Hospital at age 68, a great man, a brave witness and faithful son.
The following tribute, which first appeared on June 1, 2000, is reprinted from The Wall street Journal (C)2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.⁶

     Ellen Harding married Robert Patrick Casey Sr., son of Alphonsus Casey.¹

     Joseph T. Wright married Joan Gallagher.

     Joseph T. Wright Jr. married Denise Marie Gromelski, daughter of Joseph Gromelski and Rose Marie Notari, in February 1974.