In Loving Memory
Elaine Morton Casey Murphy, 96, of Fort Belvoir, VA and Scituate, MA, died peacefully in her sleep August 2, 2023. She was born in Boston, MA to Vincent de Paul Morton and Grace Lamb Morton and raised in West Roxbury. She attended Garland School of Homemaking in Boston and married George William Casey of Allston, MA at the Holy Name Church in West Roxbury on March 29, 1947.
George graduated from West Point in June 1945 and was posted to
Sendai, Japan for occupation duty in December. To complete the longdistance romance, he had to mail Elaine her engagement ring and return home on leave for the wedding and honeymoon in Bermuda. He then returned to duty in Japan. Several months later, Elaine, at age 21, crossed the Pacific alone to join him. The first of their 5 children (George,
Jr.) was born in Sendai, and Elaine and George embarked on a 25-year military career that also took them to 6 states and Germany. Their other children were born in Fort Campbell, KY (Peter and Joan), Fort Benning, GA (Winn) and Fort Bragg, NC (Ann). With all these moves, Elaine used her wonderful ability to put people at ease to make new friends everywhere she went—and once she knew you, she never forgot you or your family. She was the consummate hostess and loved using her Garland training to entertain everywhere she went.
George rose to the rank of Major
General and was commanding the
1st Cavalry Division when he was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam in 1970, leaving Elaine a widow at 44 to deal with the challenges thrust on a family by a combat death. In 1973, she married Major General Raymond P. Murphy in the Fort Myer Chapel, and added Ray’s two children, Brian and Karen, to the family. They retired in Colorado Springs, CO in
1975 and remained very active in the community and as members of the Broadmoor Golf Club, Garden of the Gods Club and Cheyenne Mountain Club. Elaine was an avid tennis player and golfer and got a hole-in-one at the Broadmoor at age 70.
In 2009, Elaine and Ray returned to the Washington, D.C. area, settled at the Fairfax at Belvoir Woods and summered in Scituate, MA surrounded by their family. Gam, as she was called by everyone, was “Everybody’s Grandmother.” She bridged generations and formed strong connections with her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their friends—and thoroughly enjoyed beating them at golf and tennis at Hatherly Country Club in Scituate.
Ray predeceased Elaine in 2010; as did her great-grandson, Jackson, in 2011; and her daughter, Winn Cullen, in 2016. The motto that guided her life was “Make the Best of It!” and she used that to guide herself and her family through the most difficult times.
She is survived by her brother, David Morton and his wife, Judy, of Andover, MA; her four children, George William
Casey, Jr. and his wife, Sheila, of Arlington, VA and Scituate, MA,
Peter Winn Casey of Avon, CO, Joan Casey Gettys and her husband, Mark of Wilmington, NC, and Ann Casey Bukawyn and her husband, Walter, of Daphne, AL and Scituate, MA; her two stepchildren, Brian Murphy and his wife, Sheila of New York, NY and Karen Murphy Walter and her husband, Charles, of Colorado Springs, CO; 14 grandchildren and 10 greatgrandchildren.
The family would like to thank Dr. Nirav Patel and his team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, for giving us Gam for 4 more years after her stroke in 2019, and Agnes Grindstaff, her aide for 5 years, who was by her side through the end.
Funeral Services will be held in Scituate, MA, on August 25, 2023. Elaine will be Interred in Arlington National Cemetery with George and her great-grandson, Jackson, at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, Gam would like you to take your best friends to lunch!