Marian Ash 1929-2018
Memorial service for Marian Ash, formerly of Chickasha, Okla., will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, May 10 at First United Methodist Church in Cache, Okla., with the family conducting the service. A private family inurnment will be held prior to the service in the Cache Cemetery.
Mrs. Ash passed away Nov. 6, 2018, at age 89, after a long and full life as a daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. The youngest of four children born to Elmer and Beulah Freed, Marian, born in 1929, was cheerful in temperament and was able to find the good in people and situations.
Marian’s family included Presbyterian ministers, church missionaries, teachers, writers and speakers. In her own words she was “Presbyterian through and through.”
After high school, she attended two years at Francis Shimer Preparatory College for Women, then to Wooster College in Ohio where she graduated with a major in organ music and performance. After Wooster College, she attended McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Ill., and obtained a degree in Christian education.
While at McCormick, she met (on a “blind date”) Boyd Ash, there in his studies to become a Presbyterian minister. Boyd and Marian married in 1954, creating a home that eventually numbered four children. Their lives together enjoyed an abundance of friends and experiences through work in the church and community, including travels in the U.S. and abroad to Scotland and Israel.
During the years as a minister’s wife, Marian served as organist at many of Boyd’s congregations, also leading the children’s choir, singing in the adult choir, functioning as hostess of many dinners in their home and was her husband’s steadfast supporter and encourager.
In the community, she was involved in music clubs, book review club, PEO, active with the Daughters of the American Revolution, active on local political election committees, helped with her children’s Scouting activities and was friend and neighbor to many. She was gracious, warm, agreeable and kind-hearted.
After nearly 63 years of marriage, Marian was preceded in death by her husband, Boyd, in April of 2018. They were best friends and constant companions, balancing each other in social situations and life in general. They met obstacles and opportunities together, never allowing that they should be separated by any circumstances life would bring. However, the loss of her husband brought a challenge she found more difficult without him by her side. It is with sadness we say goodbye to her, but with relief from her discomfort, to let her go.
Marian was also preceded in death by her parents, Elmer and Beulah Freed; her brother, Paul Freed; two sisters, Ethelyn Freed and Helen Ennes; a son, Stephen Ash; and a grandson, Alexander Ash.
We who remain to miss her include a son, Philip Ash of Kennard, Texas; a son, Jonathan Ash of Buckhannon, W.V.; a daughter, Denise Lindseth and her husband Richard of Maize; grandchildren, Beverly Ash Saighman, Heather Ash Wyrick, Dawn Ash White, Jeremy Wolf, Rebecca Wolf Griffin, Ethan Wolf, Lindsey Ash, Taylor Ash, Noah Ash and Austin Ash; and 10 great-grandchildren. Also surviving Marian are her three sisters-in-law, Dorothy Freed, Inola Ash and Shirley Slack; and many nieces and nephews and their children. Longtime and dear friends have also enriched Marian’s life and those of her family.
An online guestbook is available at www.jacksonfuneral.net
(PAID OBITUARY)
