ANDERSON - Audrey Eileen (Karsnak) Ashby, 102, passed away from natural causes on Friday, March 6, 2020 at her home in North Anderson with her caregivers easing her release from this earthly existence.
She was born to John and Anna Susie (Rich) Karsnak, in the house on Addison Street in Indianapolis, on Friday, January 25, 1918. She was a true WWI war baby! She attended local Indianapolis schools and graduating from George Washington High School in 1932. She also attended a local business college where she became a proficient, meticulous and organized secretary.
On Saturday, February 11, 1939, she eloped to New Castle to enter into marriage with the love of her life, Samuel C. Ashby. They enjoyed nearly sixty-two years of marriage before he passed on Christmas Day, 2000. For the remaining nineteen years of her life without “Sammy”, she filled it with time spent sewing, cooking, baking, crafting and watching her birds from the porch in her backyard.
Audrey began working for Guide Lamp Division of General Motors early in 1941. She was the lead secretary for the Head of Engineering, Robert Folge; a position she enjoyed for the next fifteen years. She left her employment in 1956 to begin the greatest career in her life of being a mother to a newborn adopted baby girl. She enjoyed watching her grow and change for the next eleven years until she decided to once again return to the workforce. In 1967 she was hired as the Registrar at Highland High School and remained a steady presence there for the next fifteen years upon her retirement in December 1982. She touched many lives, both family and friends, and we all have been greatly enriched by her life in our lives.
She is survived, and will be forever missed, by her daughter, Nancy Sue (Jeff) Elsworth of Okemos, Michigan, Grandchildren Nathan Ashby (Dorothy) Elsworth of Westmont, Illinois, Molly Elizabeth Elsworth of Carol Stream, Illinois, her Great-Grandson, of seven months, Oliver Ashby Elsworth, Westmont, Illinois, her sister, Jean Walker (Muncie) and numerous nieces and nephews and their families of both the Ashby and Karsnak families.
She was preceded to Heaven by her parents, husband Sam, sisters, June Karsnak (infant), Cathrine Miles, Pauline Lewis, brothers John (infant), George and Robert Karsnak.
The family will receive friends on Monday, March 9, 2020 from 4-7 PM at Rozelle Johnson Funeral Service. Funeral Services will be held on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 11 AM at the funeral home. Her final interment will be spending Eternity next to the love of her life, in the Garden of Time at Anderson Memorial Park.
If you so wish, donations in mom’s name can be made to either The American Cancer Society, or a charity of your choice.
Post online condolences at www.rozelle-johnson.com.