Edith Carey

Edith Anne Briggs Carey, age 92, passed away Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, at her home in Henderson, Nev.
Edith Anne Briggs was born May 19, 1933, to Ralph Edward and Esther Margaret (Spanton) Briggs at home on the family farm in Norman Township, Yellow Medicine County, Minn. Edith attended Canby Public Schools and graduated from Canby High School in 1951.
After graduation, she attended St. Cloud Teacher's College in St. Cloud, Minn. She majored in business administration, with aspirations to join the Foreign Service after graduation. However, a summer job at Glacier National Park after her sophomore year changed that plan. While working as the secretary to the main lodge manager, Edith met Robert (Bob) Carey, a college student from Washington state, also working for the summer at the park. Between picnics, ping pong, and pow wows, the young couple fell in love and decided they would be married two summers later when they both finished college. After exchanging many letters during the school year, they both returned to work at Glacier Park the summer of 1954 and resumed their in-person courtship.
Edith didn't let her engagement distract her from her studies or her school activities. She was awarded two major accolades during her senior year for outstanding leadership and scholarship. She won the 1955 St. Cloud Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award, and she was included in the 1954-55 edition of Who's Who in American University and Colleges.
Following college graduation, Edith and Bob's wedding was held on Aug. 14, 1955, at the Canby Baptist Church, while the new Presbyterian Church was under construction. After the wedding, the couple traveled to Seattle, where Bob had a waiting teaching position. They made the trip in a 1951 Ford coupe that was a wedding gift from Edith's parents.
Edith worked as a bank secretary for the first few years of their marriage. In March of 1958, two weeks before the birth of their first child, David, Edith and Bob bought and moved into a small house in north Seattle. Edith loved it there and it would be her home for the next 66 years.
Two years later, in 1960, daughter Laura completed the family. Edith was an active participant in her children's education, being involved in PTA, volunteering at school, and working as "Room Mother" throughout her children's elementary school years. She also founded a 4-H Chapter for her children and other neighborhood kids. She found time to do other volunteer work as well and also had several part time secretarial jobs during school hours.
Edith and her family retuned to Canby to spend summers with her parents on the farm almost every other year, frequently attending family reunions with Briggs relatives. She always kept up with family, friends, and classmates from the area and especially enjoyed attending reunions with the Class of 1951. Edith returned to Canby for several months in 1994 to live with and care for her mother during the last months of her life.
When her children were both in high school, Edith returned to full time work as a secretary. She proved to be a valuable employee and became office manager, working at the same office for nearly 20 years.
Following retirement, Edith found more time to garden, read more, and visit her grandkids with Bob, who had retired a few years earlier. They also discovered a new hobby that fascinated them both - genealogy. Bob and Edith took several trips to research family genealogy, and Edith was able to track her Briggs family lineage back to 1621, when Clement Briggs came to America on the ship Fortune from England.
She loved helping others and had a gift for friendship. Her life was filled with friends of all ages and from every chapter of her life--Canby classmates, college friends, neighbors past and present, former coworkers, parents of her children's friends, and even her children's friends themselves. She nurtured these relationships with care, keeping close ties across many years and miles. She was a compassionate listener, and her home was always welcoming and comforting, and filled with love and acceptance.
Other things she enjoyed were listening to NPR radio, watching movies on the Hallmark Channel, doing the NYT crossword puzzle and Wordle, playing the piano, and reading the Canby News. She was a subscriber for over 70 years, and always looked forward to its weekly arrival to keep up to date with what was going on “back home.” Family members suggested that she may have been the longest out-of-town subscriber. Cooking was not a favorite pastime, but her homemade butter rolls were a family favorite, and she enjoyed sharing the recipe that was handed down from her grandmother, Edith Spanton, from Gary, S.D.
Edith enthusiastically adopted Seattle as her home, but never forgot her Minnesota roots and was always proud to be from Canby. A backyard fall at age 91 caused a broken hip and that prompted a move to an assisted living facility in Henderson, near her son. While Edith had never planned to leave her home in Seattle, she loved the desert weather, made new friends, and was happy to see her children more frequently. Shortly after she underwent surgery for a second broken hip at the end of 2025, she contracted pneumonia. She died peacefully in her sleep with both of her children by her side.
Edith was happy, kind and loving and made this world a better place. Her absence will be felt by many. To honor Edith, consider calling an old friend, volunteering at a school or library, or planting a flower. Services will be held at a later date.
Edith was preceded in death by her husband, Robert Carey; brother, Robert Briggs; and her parents. She is survived by her son, David (Jan) Carey, Henderson; daughter, Laura Hennequin, San Diego, Cali.; grandson, Dr. James (Yurina) Carey, Portland, Ore.; granddaughters, Alexis (Nathan McCall) Hennequin, Mountlake Terrace, Wash., and Katherine Carey, Tempe, Ariz.; great-grandson, Noah Carey, Portland; sister-in-law, Arlene Briggs, Canby; and many cousins, nieces, nephews and countless friends.