Now That's What I'd Call an Obituary

I don't know about you, but I'd love to leave behind an obituary like this.

Teacher, World Traveler Margaret Casey Dies at 96

She was born on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, in Pawcatuck, Conn., the second of five children of Irish immigrants Patrick Francis Casey of Upper Tennis and Bridget Mary O'Leary of Glenerah. She grew up in a three-story home in Cumberland Hill, R.I., with aunts, uncles and cousins across the street and a magnificent orchard she always loved in the back yard.

As a youngster and as a teacher, her year always began in September. "As a child I could think of nothing more rewarding than a new dress, a new taffeta hair ribbon, a new pair of shoes, a new pencil box and a new grade," she wrote in a journal she kept for many years.

Ms. Casey was a 1930 graduate of Seton Hill College in Greensburg, Pa., where she was a Greek and Latin major and an English minor. She began her career as a fourth-grade teacher at Cumberland Hill Grammar School and then accepted a position in the English department of Cumberland Hill High School.

Teaching in the midst of the Depression, she once went for a year without pay, and, when she did get paid, she used the money to help her father make sure her brother and sister could attend college as well. She also was working at the time toward her master's degree in English, which she received from Rhode Island College of Education in 1935.