https://www.colbertmemorial.com/obituary/Beverly-Jo-Ashmore
Obituary:
Beverly Jo McKenzie Ashmore passed away peacefully at home with her family on Friday, February 25, 2022, at the age of 86. She was a much-loved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 64 years, James Dale Ashmore, M.D. Beverly was born in Forest, Mississippi, on February 3, 1936, to her late mother, Maude Freeman McKenzie, and late father, Herman Lamar McKenzie.
She is preceded in death by her parents, her older sister, Joyce McKenzie Red, and her husband, Niles Red of Forest, Mississippi, and her older brother, Herman Lamar McKenzie, Jr., and his wife, Loyce Cain McKenzie, of Madison, Mississippi. Beverly spent her childhood in Forest, Mississippi, graduated from Forest High School as a feature twirler, and won many state twirling championships as a young girl. She met her husband her junior year of high school when he moved to her home town as a high school senior and outstanding basketball player. As he played SEC Basketball at Mississippi State University, she attended the University of Southern Mississippi, was a member of the Tri Delta Social Sorority, studied Secretarial Science, and for three years, was feature majorette for “The Pride of Mississippi Marching Band”.
After Beverly’s third year of college, she married her husband in New York City on the nationally televised “Bride and Groom” Television Show, on August 20, 1957. For the next six years, the young couple alternated living in Memphis, Tennessee, as her husband attended the University of Tennessee Medical School, and Denver Colorado, where he played professional basketball, while she worked as a secretary in medical offices.
After her husband’s medical school graduation in 1963, the family moved to Leighton, Alabama, where she taught twirling lessons, was choir director and taught Sunday School classes and VBS at Leighton Methodist Church, and most importantly, raised their three daughters. She was a member of the Leighton Civic Club, the Muscle Shoals District Service League, the PEO (Philantropic Educational Organization) sisterhood, Leighton Methodist Church, and attended in her later years, Highland Park Baptist Church, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and Launch Point Church, Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Her later years were spent traveling with her husband and friends around the country, and more importantly to her, traveling to all of her nine grandchildren’s every activity and event. Since her husband’s retirement in 2015, nothing was more important to her then spending time with her family and simply “being with Jim.”
Message Thread
« Back to index | View thread »