Blanche Woods Ashworth

She was the youngest of ten children born to Andrew Byron Clay and Sara Elizabeth Acord Clay of Beckley. She lived her entire and very full life in Raleigh Country and had been the last surviving member of her immediate family.
Mrs. Ashworth attended Woodrow Wilson High School, Marshall University and Beckley College.
She was the first woman to be elected to the Board of Trustees of Mountain State University in 1976. She later was named a Trustee Emeritus and a Life Trustee at the school. She and her husband, Jay W. Woods, owned State Adjustment Service and Medical-Dental-Hospital Bureau of Beckley, a business which operated successfully from offices in the former Raleigh Country Bank for 59 years. After Jay’s death, she continued to manage the company for 23 years.
She was a member of Alpha Zeta Delta sorority. Blanche was a member of the Woman’s Club of Beckley and the Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce. She was a member of the Beckley Art Group and held various responsible positions with the First United Methodist Church, including President of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service. She had been a member of the Black Knight Country Club and the Flat Top Lake Association.
Blanche especially cherished her “little bridge and birthday groups”, as she affectionately termed them. These groups consisted of some of her very dear friends.
Her second husband, Robert J. Ashworth, preceded her in death, passing away on October 2, 2008.