Reagans to Fly to N.Y. to Attend Casey’s Funeral

President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, will fly to New York to attend the funeral Saturday of former CIA Director William J. Casey, the White House announced today, as a flap developed over the Casey family’s request that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Nicaraguan contras.

Casey, a close friend of the President, died Wednesday at the age of 74 in Glen Cove Community Hospital on Long Island.

The funeral is scheduled for Saturday afternoon in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church at Roslyn Harbor. Burial will be in Holy Road Cemetery in Westbury.

Meanwhile, relatives of an American engineer slain by Nicaraguan rebels said it is “obscene” for Casey’s daughter, Bernadette Smith, to ask that the contributions be made to the William J. Casey Fund for the Nicaragua Freedom Fighters.

‘An Absolute Outrage’

The family of Benjamin Linder, 27, who was killed last week by the contras, learned of the request when they flew home to Portland, Ore., Wednesday night after traveling to Nicaragua to bury their son.

“That’s obscene,” said Elisabeth Linder, Benjamin’s mother. “That’s an absolute outrage.”

Linder, an engineer from Portland, was killed with two Nicaraguans by the U.S.-backed rebels at a hydroelectric project in northeastern Nicaragua.

The family blames the death on the U.S. government.