BILL CASKEY

February 20, 1947 – November 20, 2014

Bill Caskey, partner in the show promotions company Caskey Lees, passed away on Thursday, November 20, 2014, due to complications from Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease.  He was 67 years old.

Bill was born to Dorothy and Elmer Caskey in 1947.  He spent his early childhood in Ashland, KY and later attended high school in Dayton, OH.  Under his mother’s guidance, Bill frequented local antiques auctions and acquired several valuable pieces.  These early antiquing years fueled a lifelong love of antiques & art.

In 1969 Bill moved to Toronto where he met his first wife, Sandra.   Together they ran Red Lion Antiques, The Collectors Book Shelf and The Indian Gallery.  During this time, Bill also opened Horizon Enterprises, to produce antique shows across Canada.

In 1982, Bill returned to the US and settled in California with his second wife Elizabeth and stepson Brandon.  His daughter Netanya joined them in 1991.  Together Bill and Liz founded Caskey Lees, an antique fair production house, and also exhibited their own materials in antique shows across the country.  

In 1985, they created The Los Angeles Folk & Ethnographic Art Show, an art fair that more closely reflected the material they were drawn to and dealt in.  This endeavor became the first of the Tribal & Textile Arts Shows that eventually expanded from Los Angeles to San Francisco and New York.  It marked the beginning of a thirty-year career producing high-end specialized art fairs across the country.  In addition to Tribal Art Shows, Bill and Caskey Lees produced the Arts of Pacific Asia Shows (Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York), the Los Angeles Modernism Show and The New York Ceramics Fair, amongst others.  Bill Caskey and Liz Lees have been long time EAC members and supporters.  

In 2009 Bill began experiencing some lapses of memory and was eventually diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in May 2010.  Bill loved the antique business. He was so passionate about the shows that he developed, and very proud to see how well respected they had become.  He was devastated when he realized that he could not continue with the work that had, since the age of nineteen, been his passion. 

Bill is survived by his wife Elizabeth Lees, step-son Brandon, daughter Netanya, her husband Kris, his grandsons Maxx and Logan, his mother Dorothy Caskey, former wife Sandra, brothers Steve and Kevin and their families.  

  

Donations can be made in Bill’s memory to the Alzheimer’s Association, Southern California Chapter, http://www.alz.org, 4221 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90010, or with Jennifer at (323) 930-6246.  The Alzheimer’s Association not only funds much needed research, but also funds programs to support patients and their families as they deal with this devastating illness.   At his request, no funeral services are planned.