It is the end of an era. Judy Dianne (née Casey) Kamps, age 85, of Kalamazoo, passed on to the Next World on October 22, 2025, with loving family and friends by her side at the Upjohn Nursing Home at Heritage Community, where she had entered assisted living at Hawthorn Landing nearly 14 months earlier, and lived her final chapter, surrounded by new friends, the caring staff (including her rock star hospice nurse, Matt, and divinely named chaplain, Blessed), roommates, neighbors, and fellow residents.

She was born on June 6, 1940 (turning four on D-Day) in Kalamazoo, to John Donohue Casey and Jennie (Triezenberg) Casey. Judy was the middle child, preceded in death by her older sister Jean (Casey) Schaub (1930-1980), and younger brother Floyd W. (1948-1949).

Judy married Hiram Floyd Kamps (1936-2013) on her 18th birthday, a marriage that lasted nearly 55 years, until his death.

She is survived by three sons to whom she devoted her life: Keith E. (67) of Albion, and his best friends Jeff and Michelle Holland, and their Yorkie Archie (and Jazzie before that); Jeffery T. (65) of Tucson, Arizona, and his partner Kathi Younger; and Kevin J. (56) of Kalamazoo, and his ex-wife, Gabriela Bulišová of Praha, Czech Republic.

Judy is also survived by a great many nieces and nephews, and others, on both sides of the family. These include: Cindy Sue Schaub and her husband Earl Morse of Eau Claire; Glenda Schaub (and grand niece Rachel and her husband Steve) of Three Oaks; Jan Schaub of Eau Claire (and grand nieces, Jessica of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Jennifer of Eau Claire, and their children, respectively: Austyn, Jayce, and JennaLynne; and Jack); first cousin, once removed, Sarah Smith; and Sheila, the Casey family genealogist from Dowagiac (who taught her that the Casey’s were from Cappa, but the Donahues were from Dingle, and how very close we all came to being Canadian!); as well as nephew Jim Roach (and his wife) of Arkansas, and Jim’s children, Amé Bell (and her boyfriend Chris) of Winter Haven, FL, and Jamie Roach (and his wife, Jennifer) of Zephyr Hills, FL, as well as Amé’s son, Jordan (and his wife), of Battle Creek; niece Sherry Fadel, her husband Jeff, and their daughter Alisha (and Gavin) Snyder, of Paw Paw; niece Deborah Edgerton-Herbst of Allegan; niece Roxanna “Tweetie” Snow of Kalamazoo; niece Jodi K. (Nelson) Mattison of Kalamazoo, her husband Christopher, and their daughter Katie; her grand niece Christine Knight Trevino (daughter of Mary Lou Verburg, who passed on in 2024), and Chrissy’s son Lorenzo Knight Trevino, of Kalamazoo; grand nephew Kevin Bushhouse of Kalamazoo, and grand niece Mindy Bushhouse of Springfield, Illinois; as well as Hiram’s cousin, Kenny Kamps of Battle Creek.

She leaves behind countless friends in her lifelong home of southwest Michigan, and many decades-long Snowbird refuge — alongside beloved Sand Hill Cranes, Ibises, and Swallow-
Tailed Kites — at the Lake Deer Mobile Hamlet in Winter Haven, FL, a location she scouted out with her husband, and fell in love with, on annual family vacations beginning in 1977. Friends and neighbors who became more like family over decades there include the Buffalonians — Frank & Connie, Angie & Brian, Bonnie & Larry — as well as Judy & Rich, Vikke, Otis, Evon, Domingo, Jill, Linda, and many others.

She looked forward to her Snowbird migration pit stops, later in life, midway between her two Land o’ Lakes peninsular homes, including: at Gerry and Graciela’s in Knoxville, where she roomed with Caterpillar the Calico; with Soly in D.C., where she appreciated her generous hospitality and saw the sights; at Terry’s in Toledo, visiting the Swamp Dawgs, especially her favorite, Storm the Bernese; and at Keegan’s in “Funroe,” where she loved the camaraderie at backyard campfires, wrapped up in the gorgeous Irish shawl he gave her.

From the Sunshine State, she cruise-shipped to a rainforest in Puerto Rico, and air-boated the Everglades, lifelong dreams. In her later years, she dodged giant Gators, including Humpback, and soared with Bald Eagles, Ospreys, and Great Blue Herons, in the nearby Circle B Bar Ranch county park. She enjoyed monthly waterski shows by the Cypress Gardens team, and caught Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday tour in Pompano Beach. Judy loved: classic car convergences; watching sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico, and at Lakes Howard and Blue (her favorite color, after all! She had “the most beautiful blue eyes,” a U.S. Senator once told her!); taking in Christmas flotillas, art exhibits and fests, pub crawls, and Tigers spring training games in Lakeland; her special “art in the park” friendship with Caroline and Laurie of Hart Art; and Alfred Meyer’s visit, and helping hand in rehab, after a fall.

Judy attended Cherry Hill Elementary, South Junior High, and Kalamazoo Central High Schools, all walking distance from her childhood home on Stearns and Maple. Her Dad bought the house in cash, with his World War I bonus money, having served as a captain’s steward about a warship. His mischievous former shipmate, Red, would visit from Chicago, bouncing baby Judy on his knee. He might be where she picked up some of the leprechaun twinkle in her left eye (Red let the ship’s milk goat loose in the captain’s cabin, with catastrophic consequences!). In Kleinstuck, as a girl, she’d rain down mayhem from on high (up in the trees!) on unsuspecting passersby hiking below! In winter, she ice-skated on the Kleinstuck pond, and built snowmen in neighbors’ front yards, including the Dipples’, and John Fetzer’s. In spring and summer, she hosted tea parties on her lawn for her dolls, Chow Chow dog and personal bodyguard Chang, and best friend Joeine.

She treasured her teenage summertimes staying with her sister’s family in Eau Claire, and visiting Casey and Donahue family stomping grounds in her Dad’s ancestral village of Dowagiac, where her great grandfather, James Casey, from County Limerick, settled in 1860, just in time to enlist in Sherman’s army. Strolling down memory lane, and the bluff above St. Joe’s Silver Beach, in her sunset years, she reminisced about her first kiss on the lakeshore below, and laughed at the memory of being knocked off a horse (and unconscious!) she’d been sternly warned not to ride.

Judy came of age in the “Happy Days” of the 1950s. Adventures included Sock Hops in alleyways downtown, taking turns a little too fast in her friend’s parents’ T-bird, “sailing” Gull Lake in friends’ amphibious car, and taking in live performances by such “up and coming” artists as Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as Johnny Cash (yes, “He’d Been Everywhere,” even Chenery Auditorium, where her cousin Jo presented him with a handmade quilt!). Judy enjoyed volunteering as a ball girl at the U.S. Tennis Association Boy’s National Championships at K College; at an after-party one year, teen idol Ricky Nelson, who had just performed, asked her to dance. “Fishing stories” of “Girls Night Out” include one starting at Louie’s downtown, then unwisely proceeding to Gull Lake, despite the fierce blizzard, and lack of Ladies Rooms, in between! She also waitressed at Tarnow’s Restaurant with her cousin Jo and other best friend Wanda (although rumors of rollerskating on the job cannot be confirmed!).

She was a certified Michigoose through and through, including her love of driving the open road. Golden years road trips sealed the deal. Judy was thrilled by multiple Great Lakes ferry voyages on the way to and from Duluth, for an Honor the Earth “Water Is Life” music festival on Labor Day weekend 2022, including at Pictured Rocks, where her folks had taken her as a girl, on one of their anniversary trips, long before the Mackinac Bridge; and she was happy to catch The Temptations at Big Top Chautauqua at the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior in Wisconsin, given her lifelong love of Motown music.

Her 30-day road trip in summer 2023 included: her first passage through the “Gateway to the West,” finally meeting Kay Drey in person, and taking in Barbieheimer together; enjoying hummingbirds and bobcats near Santa Fe (thanks Cynthia!), and art and Indigenous culture in Albuquerque (thanks Robin!); happening upon an ornate Dowagiac Round Oak Stove at a Grand Canyon distillery (how, and when, did that get there?!); Viva-ing Las Vegas, seeing large herds of wild horses and burros in Nevada, walking the red carpet as Downwind won Best Documentary at the Cordillera International Film Festival (“all the way to Reno, you’re gonna be a star!”), and dipping her wheels in Lake Tahoe (thanks Ian, Holly, and Carol, as well as Mark!).

She appreciated her warm welcome by Alliance for Nuclear Accountability at “DC Days” in 2023 and 2024, and her newfound friendships, to add to her previous “anti-nuclear family,” including: Molly & Rick, Lon & Carol, Karen & Smitty, Dee & NIRS, Wally & Pam, Dave & Corey & Jan from NEIS, Susan & Scott (and their cattle dog Chaco), Kim, Chris & Giselle, Don, Jessie & Jesse, Mark, and many others. Judy cherished the gorgeous crown and pendant of seashells so generously given to her by Corinne and Marcina of the Marshallese Educational Initiative in Arkansas. (And was thankful for a Heaven-sent elevator repairman in the Hart Senate Office Building, who showed her the secret backway shortcut to her first ever lobby visit, racing in her wheelchair, arriving just in the nick of time! As well as a kindhearted stranger on the streets of D.C., who gave her his family’s only umbrella, after the sky had opened up.)

Judy had considered a career in social work, but instead, beginning at a young age, devoted her life to “domestic engineering,” raising her three sons over the course of the next few decades. (Of course, it takes a village. Judy very much appreciated her youngest’s youth pastor, Wayne Connor, at 1st Pres, who guided him to public service volunteering; as well as Ilze, who on no notice, helped deal with a gushing bloody nose, on Judy’s son’s opening night in a high school play, even though Ilze had three sons of her own to get off to school!)

The newlyweds and their first born spent a year in an apartment in the Washington Square neighborhood, then moved into the family home on Fairfax Avenue near Westnedge in 1960, where they remained ever after. The Kamps family home is on Anishinaabe aki, of course, just within the “1821 to 1827 Pottawatomi reservation line, of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band,” as stated on the Whites Road street signs nearby.

There, she befriended generations of dear neighbors, putting her care and concern into action countless times to help loved ones in ways big and small. These have included: Mrs. Smits and Alex; Mrs. Dinvold; Mr. Leashy; the Michaels, Deyoungs, Burrells, Bishops, Derbys, and Durbins; Kito, Kenjji, Kenya, Monifa, and Ayo; Lon & Barb; and many others. Her neighborliness led to “adopting” another family, “of the spirit” — James (1969-2021) and Pat Snead (who passed on in 2023) — into her own family, and they hers into theirs. So Judy is also survived by James’ ex-wife Tara, her son Bryson, and Bryson’s son Maddox, as well as Pat’s partner Jamie.

Judy’s daily coffee clatching was in full swing by the early 1970s, lunching with mail carriers and police officers at Glenn’s Restaurant at Burdick and Alcott, where her neighbor and best friend, Bea McMillan, waitressed (Judy is also survived by Bea’s daughter Chris, and granddaughter Katie). She then moved on, first to Mackenzies Bakery, and ultimately Panera in Portage, where old friendships were nurtured, and new ones formed, including with the Houstons, the Jans, and many others.

Judy’s love of fine food led her to such local gems as Sarkozy Bakery, Al Heilman’s Nut Shop, Water Street Coffee Joint, Confections with Convictions, People’s Food Co-Op, as well as Martini’s Pizzeria, first at the original Portage location, and then for many decades of delicious, memorable meals at the current Vine Neighborhood location. There she befriended the owner, Rich Munda, who always made her feel welcome, and even generously donated pizzas toward the Kamps’ Chornobyl Children’s Project, helping visually impaired Belarussian children in the late 1990s. Besides the all-vegan gourmet fare at V & M Bakery & Café in Winter Haven, FL (including wings, that “fooled” even the Buffalonians at a Super Bowl party in the Lake Deer club house, not to mention the dark chocolate and also Snickers cakes!), Judy loved her many happy times with Mika and her Maman.

The compassion of Judy’s big heart very much so extended to critters as well. Giraffes were her Power Animal. Despite having her toddler in tow in the back seat of her Dad’s hand-me-down green VW bug, she nonetheless stopped busy traffic in both directions on Crosstown Parkway at Crosstown Ponds, until a Momma Goose and her Goslings made it safely across. She was most definitely at least tied for World’s Biggest Dog Lover, including every one she ever met, but most especially her own, all of them adopted strays, but for one, who she adopted from her hairdresser when she passed on (Suzie; Cookie; Penny; Puppy; Chocolate Chip Anne; and Wobbly Joe Hill), and her niece Cindy’s dogs, especially dearly departed Scrappy, as well as Ella, and Scotty, with whom she enjoyed sharing a good snooze! Her entire pack who passed on before her was undoubtedly there to greet her, and show her around, as she passed through the Western Door (as her good friend Larry “Pun” Plamondon, a traditional Odawa storyteller, taught her family about), walked the Milky Way (according to Yahi tradition), and arrived at the Rainbow Bridge.

Judy loved her novels, soaps, sit-coms and rom-coms, as well as stand up comedy — the latter sure to spark her hearty laughter.

Her lifelong fascination with dolls led to a remarkable collection, reflective of her deep love of children.

She loved: gathering with and giving gifts to friends and family; roses; rainbows; dogwoods; and the Holland Tulip Fest parade, which as a girl she would watch go by from her Dutch uncle’s window downtown.

Her passion for bowling lasted decades, culminating with a 289 game — one missed strike, but the spare picked up — with everyone at Sunset Lanes stopping to watch.

She was a soccer mom long before it was popular, including talking her way past Canadian border guards at Windsor: her son’s Japanese foreign exchange student teammate, Hiro, forgot to bring his passport, during a high school travel team trip to Toronto. She became a lifelong fan of “The Beautiful Game,” including spending the entire month of June 2024 watching European and Latin American tournaments at Fletcher’s Pub in Oakwood, befriending staff there.

Her love of life will be sorely missed, as will her passionate devotion to family, friends, peace, justice, the environment, and civil rights. This was reflected in the many good cause yard signs she posted in her front yard and windows for decades, as well as the bumper stickers on her cars. She loved her “Good Trouble” John Lewis race car red sweatshirt from Nisey’s Boutique in Mount Rainier, Maryland! And she lived up to it! From her lawn chair, she could transform into a formidable Momma Bear, when circumstances required. At a protest against a southwest Michigan lakeshore polluter, when the local Sheriff’s Department and/or facility security sicced Animal Control on protestors with dogs, just to harass them, Judy told them to put their pets underneath — they’d have to get through her to take them! They didn’t dare even try. And at an area Flag Day parade, she stood up and yelled “Stop the Mobile Chornobyl!” at a powerful U.S. Representative — as he “floated” by, waving from the back seat of a convertible — who was leading efforts in Congress to dump radioactive waste on Western Shoshone land at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.