Jennifer C. Casner, former tennis player and businesswoman, dies at 50

Baltimore Sun (MD)

Dec. 16--Jennifer C. Casner, a businesswoman who owned and operated a monogramming business in Boston, died Thursday at Beverly Hospital in Beverly, Mass., after choking on food while attending a holiday party.

The former Ruxton resident was 50.

She was the daughter of Sackett Snow Cook, a partner in Stump, Harvey & Cook, Baltimore insurance brokers, and Phyllis Feffer Cook, a Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. administrator.

Born Jennifer Lynn Cook in Baltimore, she spent her early years on Stanmore Road in Rodgers Forge. She later moved with her family to the Greenspring Valley, then to Ruxton.

She attended the Calvert School and in 1983 graduated from Bryn Mawr School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1987 from Hollins College in Roanoke, Va.

As a child, she could often be found on the tennis courts of the Greenspring Valley Hunt Club, L'Hirondelle Club and the Bare Hills Tennis Club. She was ranked as a player in Maryland when she was a teenager.

Before starting her retail career, she had been a tennis professional in Nonquitt, Mass.

In 2004, she established Trappings, a boutique in Wellesley, Mass., that sold belts, bags and other women's apparel. She closed the business in 2011 and became a personal shopper for J. Crew in Boston.

Ms. Casner later founded the Tusk Monogram Collection on Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, where some of the products she sold included monogrammed bedding, bath, stationary, cashmere, jewelry, bags and throws.

Since 2001, she had lived in Dedham, Mass.

"She was known for her exquisite style in women's clothing," said a sister, Stacia Cook of Baltimore.

A memorial service for Ms. Casner will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Dedham, Mass.

In addition to her sister, Ms. Casner is survived by her husband of 15 years, Richard Casner, a financial consultant; two daughters, Alexis Cook Gulino, a junior at Georgetown University, and Talia Austin Gulino, a freshman at the College of Charleston; her mother of Bel Air; her father and stepmother, Mary Cook, of Boca Grande, Fla.; a brother, Sackett Snow Cook Jr. of Old Greenwich, Conn.; two other sisters, Laura Cook of Millville, Del., and Pamela Tamberino of Forest Hill; a stepson, Richard "Charlie" Casner Jr. of Orlando, Fla.; two stepdaughters, Liza Casner of South Portland, Maine, and Charlotte Casner of Burlington, Vt.; a stepbrother, Joshua Canning of St. Croix, Virgin Islands; a stepsister, Elizabeth Canning of Fairfax, Calif.; and many nieces and nephews. An earlier marriage to Gregory Gulino ended in divorce.