Peace & Justice Snapshot: Lloyd and Gracie Casey

Who: Lloyd and Grace Casey (he prefers “Casey” and she goes by “Gracie”) both 79. married in 1946, seven children, 13 grandchildren.

Where: They currently live in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, but have moved around because of job opportunities and family needs: San Mateo, Calif., Yakima, Wash., Denver, Col., now Columbus.

When: Throughout their marriage of 55 years they have been deeply involved in virtually every progressive movement and organization

What: They are the quintessential Christian-Catholic activist couple with serious involvement in the Christian Family Movement, the anti-nuclear arms movement, anti-war movements (during the Vietnam and Iraq wars), the farm workers movement, the Kerry campaign and Call to Action – to name a few. They have written letters, recruited volunteers and marched. For 10 years during the 1970 and 1980s they marched 10 miles once a month to demonstrate against a facility in Colorado where components for nuclear weapons were manufactured. Casey earned a masters degree in theology and was a professional lay theology teacher for 10 years in several parishes in Colorado and the State of Washington. (He lost the job when a new pastor told him, “I don’t think lay people should be teaching theology.”) Casey ran for the Colorado State Senate in 1988, was defeated, ran again in 1992 and won -- at the age of 66. He served his four years trying to pass bills “to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and stop the death penalty, but it was a Republican stronghold and I couldn’t get much done.” He has also worked as a school teacher, an insurance salesman and a quality engineer in a computer manufacturing company. Gracie worked as a medical lab technician.

Why: The Christian Family Movement “taught us to put our faith in action,” according to Gracie, “so that’s what we’ve done. Sometimes I’ve had to push him, but we’ve always been in this together.”

Interesting fact: Gracie can trace her roots back to the Wells family in Baltimore, Md., in the 1600s. A member of that family, Roger Mason, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Quote (Casey): “When we moved to Columbus in 2001, I looked around and saw they had a CTA chapter in Cleveland, they had a chapter in Cincinnati, they had a chapter in Dayton. And here we were in the capital of the state and no CTA. So I contacted the national office, got the names and addresses of members living in our zip code, wrote them all a letter and then called them on the phone. I said, ‘We need a local chapter here, but I’m too old to run the thing, so you people are going to do it.’ And it’s worked out well. We have over 100 on the mailing list, about 50 who are active, and we average about 20 at the monthly meeting.”