Mary Eliza Ploeger Frank Cassidy was born May 10, 1912 in Guthrie, OK and died July 14, 2011. Mary, age 99, resided at Cool Spring Farm in Berryville, VA until 2001, when she became a resident at the Rose Hill Golden Living Center where she resided until time of her passing. She and her late husband Lewis J. Cassidy, had six children, all whom have married and have collectively had 24 grandchildren, and 37 great grandchildren, most of them still located in the Virginia/Maryland area. Mary leaves behind a legacy of family strength, courage, and love and many legendary memories.

Mary was one of the last surviving daughters of an original Oklahoma homesteader. Her father Thomas Frank, at age 21, staked a claim in Oklahoma Territory April 22, 1889. His claim was South of Guthrie where he and his wife Kathryn raised Mary and the rest of their family.

The family wishes to share some of Mary's interesting background. Mary was the seventh child, born in Guthrie, Oklahoma to Tom and Katie Frank. Tom Frank was one of the original homesteaders in the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. Mary grew up on a ranch; a cattle and cotton farm. She graduated from Guthrie High School in 1930. She was a pioneer and an adventurer.

She boldly travelled to Washington DC in 1932, where she met Lewis Cassidy. They married soon afterwards. She converted to Catholicism before they married, and remained a devout Catholic and life-long member of St. Louis Church in Alexandria, VA. She worked as a beautician in DC. After living in an apartment in Glover Park, Washington, DC for a year, Mary and Lewis purchased a small farm in Alexandria, VA in 1933. Mary held tight to a dream to raise her family the same way she had been raised in Oklahoma. The farm included a small orchard, a chicken house, barns, land for a large vegetable garden, and lots of pasture for raising milk cows, horses, sheep, and a variety of other animals.

Mary was a mother, homemaker, gardener, and farmer. She raised six children, producing most of the family's food on the farm. She did all the cooking, canning, and freezing of the produce and meats. She was a wonderful cook. Any family member can tell you how fantastic her home baked bread and cinnamon rolls tasted. She didn't need a measuring cup and the recipes were all in her head. She could take whatever was on hand and whip up an incredible meal. If unexpected guests arrived, they would always be welcomed with a warm smile and a fabulous meal that seemed to come out of nowhere. Fried chicken with milk gravy, potatoes and green beans from the garden, eggs from the henhouse, steak from the pasture to the freezer, pickled peaches, lamb's quarters, hand-churned butter, homemade bread and crab-apple jelly. She had a milk cow for years, hand-churned her own butter, baked chocolate cake using buttermilk, and whipped up home-made ice cream. Mary managed the logistics of raising children and animals, planting, harvesting, preserving, and maintaining farm equipment and buildings with tremendous skill and passion. Many of these skills have been passed on to her children and grandchildren and are now being passed on to her great-grandchildren.

Mary was a true pioneer in sustainability, recycling, repurposing, organic gardening, and healthy living. She loved and respected nature and was compassionate towards people and animals. As one example, during World War II when so many local families were under hardship, Mary and Lewis provided refuge for nine families to live in the outbuildings and park their trailers on the farm. The farm was always home to multiple family pets: dogs, cats, goats, rabbits, birds, etc. Mary used to say that if she had less than four dogs at any given time, then she was getting dog-poor.

Mary held strong to her ideals, morals, and beliefs and imparted these values to everyone she touched. She was teacher, counselor, coach, and friend and leaves this world with a legacy of her skills and values.

Mary was the mother of Catherine Ann Cassidy Evans, Mary Lou Cassidy Luca, Elizabeth (Betty) Jane Cassidy Dillon, Lewis Jerome Cassidy, Jr., Patrick Thomas Cassidy, and Michael Clarence Cassidy.

She was blessed with a can-do attitude. As an example, when Mary was six months pregnant with her fourth child, she hooked up the old plow-horse, Molly, to the plow and plowed the garden.

Grandma was strong, and kind, and stubborn. She loved gardening and animals and babies. She could make anything grow, and planted what seemed like everything, everywhere. Seedlings were started in the kitchen or on the porch in anything from egg cartons to old margarine tubs. Nothing went to waste when Grandma was around either. You could reuse that old coke bottle to freeze prune juice, or weave old rags into rugs, or feed the leftovers on your plate to the dogs.
Going to visit her always meant good fun: planting something, or picking something, or seeing the animals, or climbing up in the barn even though she'd told us not to. It might mean rolling seed potatoes in lime on the front porch, or snapping beans. It might mean picking berries until you were ready to burst, or making daisy chains out of the violets in the yard near the sheep pen. It might mean gathering the eggs from the chickens, or riding around the farm in a truck yelling "come boss" out the window so she could count the cows, or playing with the dogs. It always meant good food, good stories, and lots of love. Grandma taught me how to bake pies and sweep floors. She was very patient showing me how to roll out the dough, and less so with the sweeping.
Of course, no visit would be complete without the pictures and stories. When we'd go to visit her at the farm, nearly every horizontal surface would be covered with photographs. Some were current, some were decades old. She would tell you all about the person in the photograph, even if it was you. These reminiscences were shared by Candice Cassidy Murphy, Granddaughter.

Family and friends are invited to visit to share the memories on July 21, 2011 between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. at the Colonial Funeral Home, 201 Edwards Ferry Rd NE, Leesburg, VA 20176. Services will be held on Friday, July 22, 2011 starting at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Louis Catholic Church, 2907 Popkins Lane, Alexandria, VA 22306. Interment to follow at 12:00 noon in the Mount Comfort Cemetery, 6600 S. Kings Highway, Alexandria, VA 22306.

In lieu of flowers, the family wishes to plant a living memorial to Mary at the family farm. Mary loved to watch anything grow, whether it was plants and trees, or puppies and babies. Mary was such an avid gardener, that the family intends to plant fruit and nut trees in an orchard to remember her by.
Donations can be made to Cool Spring Farm at 932 Edwards Ferry Road, #22, Leesburg, VA 20176 or to a charity of choice.