Obit: Casey, Daniel J. (1895 - 1934)

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Surnames: CASEY WILL JEANMARD

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 04/05/1934

Casey, Daniel J. (14 Sept. 1895 - 3 Apr. 1934)

(St. Louis Star-Times)

Daniel J. Casey, president of the Western Watchman Publishing Co., which until recently published the Western Watchman, Catholic weekly, died of pneumonia at the City Hospital Tuesday night. He was 37 years old.

Mr. Casey came to St. Louis in 1932 to join the Watchman staff. He was business manager until last fall, when he acquired the majority stock of the company. Publication ceased in December pending a reorganization and Mr. Casey had planned to issue the paper again, beginning in May.

Mr. Casey is survived by his widow and small daughter, who are enroute here from Wisconsin. Pending their arrival funeral arrangements have not been made. The body is at the Cullivan & Riley chapel, 5007 Waterman avenue. Mr. Casey made his home here at the American Annex.

He was born in New York, entered newspaper work there, and later became connected with Catholic publications. Before coming to St. Louis, he was associated with Joseph Quinn, editor of the Southwest Courier, a Catholic weekly at Oklahoma City, Okla.

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 04/19/1934

Daniel J. Casey was born in New York City on Sept. 14, 1895, and graduated from high school at the age of fourteen. He then entered college conducted by the Jesuit Fathers in Boston, Mass. After graduation, he spent one year abroad. On the 11th of December, 1917, he was enlisted at Columbus Barracks, Ohio. He served as sergeant of the air service overseas and became a commission officer just as the war ceased. On his return to the United States Mr. Casey studied law and was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. But the Catholic Press was the field of his choice. It mattered naught in what capacity he served. He worked with the same zest seeking advertising or selling subscriptions as he did with his pen. Mr. Casey went to St. Louis in 1932 and was perhaps best known to readers of the Western Watchman through his column, "Our Weekly Dozen." His squibs were quoted by Catholic newspapers from coast to coast. Mr. Casey was married to Antoinette Will of Colby, Wisconsin, on February 2, 1930. His sudden passing, being sick with pneumonia but three days, is mourned by his wife and daughter, Mary Ann. Also his mother, two brothers, Joe and Jim, and two sisters, Beatrice and Margaret, of Boston, Mass.

The Southwest Courier prints:

"Thousands of our readers will recall a rather short, spry man who called upon them for subscriptions a few years ago. He was Irish and his name was Daniel J. Casey. Likely as not he stopped to chat a while with you and you enjoyed his wit and optimism. He died last week in St. Louis after a short spell of pneumonia.

Casey was a soldier of fortune in many ways. He came to Oklahoma in 1929, carefree, buoyant, ready to do our bidding. He solicited in every town and city of Oklahoma. Then we sent him to the diocese of Lafayette upon the invitation of Bishop Jeanmard. He obtained more than 1700 subscriptions among the French people of that section, then went north to the Diocese of Alexandria where he wrote 1200. Crossing over into Texas, he solicited in Amarillo and other Panhandle cities and added 1050 more names to our mailing list. Then back to Oklahoma to write or rewrite additional thousands. Not once did he fail to send in a listed name. And he obtained the subscriptions of practically everyone with whom he talked.

His work done here, Casey went to the Kansas City Catholic Register and later to the Western Watchman of St. Louis. Here he blossomed out as a writer with a keen, trenchant pen and sharp wit. We understand he became president of The Western Watchman Publishing Co. which was in process of re-organization at the time of his death.

Few men were so enthused over the Catholic press as was Daniel Casey. His Catholicity was as solid as a rock and he was thoroughly grounded in Catholic doctrine. He wrote as highly as eighty subscriptions a week, among Catholic and non-Catholic people, and he was an exponent of Catholic beliefs wherever he went. Fearless, militant, he went about doing great good in sections where the Catholic church was little known. Many of our subscribers in far-off places owe him a debt of gratitude, as do we, for seeking those isolated by a great distance. May his soul rest in peace."