Carolyn Louise Tolbert Ashton

Mrs. Carolyn Tolbert Ashton passed away peacefully on the morning of 24 April 2014, with her husband, Guthrie, by her side. “Cokey,” as she was called by home town friends and those who knew her well, endured a long and painful illness from the effects of an incurable disease, Scleroderma. She was born in Willisville, VA, in Loudoun County, on 22 March 1939 and moved to Leesburg, VA at the age of 11 with her family. “Cokey” was the Valedictorian of the 1956 graduating class of Douglass High School in Leesburg. She entered Virginia State College in the fall of 1956 and graduated in May of 1960 and was also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Kappa Delta Pi, an Educational Honor Society.

“Cokey” married her high school sweetheart, Guthrie, on 20 December 1960. This union covered seven years of courtship and fifty three years of marriage.

As an Army wife, she lived in the states of Washington, Georgia and Kentucky. Returning to Virginia in 1976, she began the final 28 years of a 35 year career, as a civil servant at the Aviation Laboratories. She retired in 2004 from the Army Training Support Center as a Logistics Management Specialist, after being responsible for management of the Armies largest system of training devices. MILES was a laser weapon system found on all weapons from rifles to tanks. Training managers of all services knew to go to Mrs. Ashton if they needed MILES. She received many awards from all levels of Command for her work.

Mrs. Ashton was preceded in death by her parents, John and Virginia Tolbert of Leesburg, VA; brother, James; and sister, Thelma.

She is survived by her husband, LTC Guthrie Ashton, US Army (Ret); sons, Ken Del (Sonya) of Washington, DC, and Richard of Reston, VA; daughter, Terri of Arlington, VA; brother, John W. Tolbert (Susan) of Columbus, OH; sister, Carol, of Leesburg, VA; granddaughters, Olivia, Camille, and Simone of Reston, VA.

She loved her lunch bunch of fellow federal retirees, Janet Biege, Heath Parker, Eileen Robards and Juanita Davis, who died in January of this year. She was especially attached to Maureen McCarthy, who still works at ATSC.

A visitation will take place at Nelsen Funeral Home, 3785 Strawberry Plains Rd., Williamsburg, VA 23188, on Thursday, May 1, from 5-8pm. A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 31 at the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Leesburg, VA, beginning at 1pm.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Medical University of South Carolina, Dept. of Medicine Research and Education, 261 Calhoun St., MSC 182, Charleston, SC. Online condolences may be offered at www.nelsencares.com.