Esther G. Asher, 98 4/01

    FERNDALE - Esther G. Asher, 98, passed away Sunday, March 31, 
2002, at her son's home. She was born June 9, 1903, in Hickory, 
N.C., a daughter of the late Alfred and Beulah Carter Boston. She 
believed in the Baptist faith, and had been a homemaker.

   In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her 
husband, Charlie Asher, whom she married in 1923; a daughter, Gayle 
Smith; sister, Alice A. Brown; brother, Gleen Boston; and 
son-in-law, Lee Thomas Hopkins. Survivors include her son, Charles 
Mike (Bess) Asher, Ferndale; daughter, Joann Hopkins, Ferndale; 
grandchildren, Charles M. Asher Jr., Kimberly Asher, Eric Smith, 
Mark Smith, Lea Ann Mills, and Karen Jones; ten great-grandchildren;
sisters, Paralee Sharpe, Great Mills, Md.; Myrtle Desmelik, 
Farmington, Mich., Jean Brink, Inverness, Fla., Ann Sanocki, 
Hendersonville, N.C., and Daisy Chavey, Livonia, Mich.; and a host
 of other relatives and friends.

   Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Arnett 
& Steele Funeral Home with Dr. Chuck Summers presiding. Pallbearers 
will be her grandsons and great-grandsons, Milton Brooks, and Tommy 
Asher. Visitation will be Tuesday, after 6 p.m., at Arnett & Steele 
Funeral Home, Pineville.