In one of her last rallies, Largo High grad Casie Snow cheered the Lightning and her favorite player past Calgary in May's Stanley Cup finals.
By Times Staff Writer
Published August 20, 2004
PINELLAS PARK - For four years at Largo High School, Casie Snow was captain of the color guard. A cheerleader and honor roll student, she also played softball and quarterbacked the flag football team.
Last year, 35 days before graduation, she found out she had leukemia-AML.
She turned 18 at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. She spent months getting chemotherapy. Her waist-length, strawberry blond hair fell out. She had eight surgeries and countless biopsies.
Miss Snow died at the hospital Wednesday (Aug. 18, 2004) at 19.
On a night out in May, she took in the second hockey game of the Stanley Cup finals and cheered for Brad Richards, her favorite player for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Richards, who joined the team in 2000, purchased a St. Pete Times Forum suite that included 18 season tickets. He established a foundation for children with cancer: Richy's Rascals.
With the sleeves of her gray Lightning T-shirt rolled up, she sat on the edge of a black leather chair in Suite 521, clapping and shouting and shooting photos, according to a story in the Times. That night, she had rallied, fighting off nausea and ignoring the shooting pain in her legs.
"We've got to win this one," she said just before the opening faceoff in the game against Calgary that the Lightning won, 4-1. "I won't be able to come to any of the other games."
A St. Petersburg native, Casie Rae Snow had been a volunteer for the Ronald McDonald House and was a member of the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.
Survivors include her parents, Kent "Rock" and Jane L. Snow, and two brothers, Kris H. Snow and Nicholas K. Snow, all of Pinellas Park; and her paternal grandmother, Frances Snow, Bay City, Mich.
Friends may call at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, 5815 Fifth Ave. N. A Mass will be at 1 p.m. Burial will be at Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
The family suggests memorial contributions go to the Casie Snow Fund for Bone Marrow Drive at Bank Atlantic, 7480 Bryan Dairy Road, Largo, FL 33770. Brett Funeral Home & Cremation Services, St. Petersburg, is in charge.
Information from Times files was used in this obituary.
