Patricia H. Casper

Patricia Haack Casper died peacefully at home on January 16, 2014, in the company of her husband, Richard Casper, her daughter, Lori (Matthew) Jensen, and her son, Benjamin (Launi) Casper. For nearly four months, she had battled valiantly to survive a series of unexpected complications from heart bypass surgery. Even though there were miracles along the way, each new turn made her more weary and weakened. After a new setback at the beginning of January, she told her family, "I want to go home."

Patricia had in mind a different "home," however, than the one she had lived in for thirty-five years. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Patricia wanted to put on magical red slippers, click her heels together three times, and skip all the way to the one place where she believed she could be free of pain. Patricia agreed with Dorothy that some of life ". . . is not very nice, but most of it is beautiful."

Patricia began her journey home with a two-day hospice stop to visit with her husband, children and neighbors at her home in Holladay, Utah, then stepped into the place where she hoped to reunite with parents and siblings who had died before her. On January 16, she joined her father, H. Dorsal Haack; her mother, LaFon Minson Haack; sisters, Karen Haack and Janeth (Reno) Tam; and brothers, Tommy Haack and William D. (Robin) Haack.

Patricia was born September 23, 1948, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She married Richard in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple on September 5, 1970. She is survived by her husband, two children and their spouses, four grandchildren (Casper Jensen, Jackson Casper, Whitney Jensen, and Stewart Jensen) and by four siblings: Naoma (Owen) Peterson, Lynette (DeLoy) Haws, Robert Haack and JoAnn (Kent) Rapp.

For fifty years, she had lived courageously with Type 1 diabetes. This same courage made her a fearless defender of the underdog and the constant champion of her children, her husband, and her many nieces and nephews. In the spring and summer of her life, she taught the twelve- and thirteen-year-old girls in her LDS ward's Beehive class. They remember her fondly as "the teacher who was always prepared and took time to listen." She devoted countless hours to the preparation of each lesson. Her students found in her a compassionate listener who knew well the insecurities of teenaged girls.

She was a voracious reader who left behind a mountain of well-worn books and a frayed library card. She studied cosmetology and became the neighborhood hairdresser and barber. Women and teensa