Virginia “Ginny” Ashford

01/30/1925 – 03/26/2024 

Our beautiful mother and friend Virginia “Ginny” Ashford passed away peacefully at home on March 26, 2024. She lived every day of her 99 years full of joy and love. She was a beautiful soul, an Angel that walked this earth for almost a century. The life of any party, Ginny was a welcoming, loving and generous, one-of-a-kind woman. She was full of life and full of love: she raised eight children with values of openness, faith and hard work. Her door was quite literally always open.

Ginny was born in Amherst Junction, Wisconsin on Jan. 30, 1925, to Helen and John Hintz. Hard work and service were learned at an early age as Ginny helped her mother and her sister Evelyn, who was born deaf. 

In 1944, she met and married Army Air Corps Bombardier James Ashford. While James was fighting in World War II, Ginny worked as a welder to support the war efforts. Upon Jim’s return from the war, they made their home close to Ginny’s family in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In 1956 they packed up their station wagon – with Ginny pregnant in the front seat with number seven, and six rambunctious kids in the back seat – on their way to a new career for Jim in North Hollywood, California.

In 1968 they bought their home in Carpinteria, where Ginny spent the next 55 years of her life. Ginny was a beautiful, spirited and joyful part of Carpinteria. She worked at the Casitas Hallmark store for 35 years. She was an icon: a vibrant white-haired lady with spiders and stickers stuck in her hair. She brought her welcoming spirit, her love of fun and that sparkling joy with her where she tended to our Carpinteria community. Chances are she slipped you a bag of her famous cookies or some jellybeans with a wink while your mom shopped for a card.

Ginny truly loved her family and her community. The holidays were all-day affairs where everyone was welcome. The more the merrier, she would say. There was always more room at Ginny’s table. Gathering her family around her was her great love, and she was surrounded by them constantly.

Ginny was a woman of deep faith. She walked to 7:30 a.m. daily mass at St. Joseph Chapel and served as a Eucharistic minister at St. Joseph Church. She joyfully volunteered at the beer booth for many of the St Joseph’s carnival. She cared so much for others: from feeding the men hopping the trains, taking the priests to her beloved The Palms Restaurant, to sending a beautiful handwritten card to a neighbor. Ginny showed us all that small impacts on people’s lives are what truly matter.

A woman of many talents and loves, Ginny was an avid bowler, square dancer and baker. She loved to bake cookies, popcorn balls, fudge – you name it – to give away to whomever she encountered. She was a strong woman with a can-do spirit; neighbors will fondly recall her mowing her lawn in her bikini. She loved her home and spent almost every afternoon until she passed in the backyard playing Rummikub with her friends and anyone who might stop by.

Faith, love and family surrounded Virginia through her whole life. She raised her children and grandchildren to value the love of family, strong work ethic, integrity and joy of being alive. She sparkled with life and Carpinteria was blessed by her.

Ginny is preceded in death by her son Bill Ashford; daughter-in-law Debbie Ashford; her husband Jim Ashford; her parents Helen and John Hintz; and sister Evelyn.

She is survived by her children: Jim (Jillian) Ashford, Paul Ashford, Carol (Tim) Bennett, Debbie Ashford, Tom (Sue) Ashford, Maggie Johnson, Patsy (Rob) Mayer and John (Linda) Ashford; and 18 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.

Please join Virginia’s family for a celebration of her life with a funeral service on May 4 at 10:00 a.m. at Saint Joseph Church in Carpinteria – located at 1532 Linden Ave. – followed by a luncheon reception at Rincon Beach Club in Carpinteria, at 3805 Santa Claus Lane. A rosary will be held at 7:30 p.m. on May 3 at St. Joseph Chapel.