Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Felts, Ashton M., 2000 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ ASHTON M. FELTS Ashton Meredith Felts, 73, a lifelong resident of the Berlin area of Southampton County, died July 11, 2000, at his home after a prolonged illness with cancer. Born Sept. 10, 1926, he was the son of the late John Henry Felts and Ethel Worrell Felts. Prominent in local business and civic affairs all his life, Mr. Felts was a senior at Ivor High School when he left to join the U.S. Merchant Marines in 1945 during World War II. After his discharge from military service, he worked for Peebles Grocery Store and Southern States in Wakefield for a time until building his home in Berlin and beginning to farm Felts Peanut Farms with his father in the late 1940s. In 1965 he established A.M. Felts Warehouse in Berlin, a peanut buying station also selling farm chemicals and fertilizer. He sold this business in 1983 and continued to work on the family farm until his death. In 1976, Mr. Felts was elected to the Southampton County Board of Supervisors and in 1985 he became chairman of the board. He served in this capacity until he retired in 1995. Mr. Felts was a member of the Board of Directors of United Community Bank (formerly the Bank of Sussex and Surry) for 14 years. He was a member of the Economic Development Commission for Franklin-Southampton County from 1986 to 1995; he served on the USDA Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service for many years; was a member of the Board of Directors of the Southeast Public Service Authority from 1984 to 1995; was a trustee for Southampton Memorial Hospital and was past president and member of the board of Ivor Medical Center. He was a lifelong active member of Millfield Baptist Church in Berlin, serving in numerous capacities including deacon, trustee, clerk, treasurer, Sunday School superintendent for 25 years and chairman of the cemetery committee. He was a member, past master and secretary for 30 years of the Ivor Masonic Lodge No. 291, AF&AM, a charter member and past president of the Ivor Rescue Squad, was a 50-year member and past president of the Ivor Ruritan Club and had served as District Lt. Governor of the Holland District for Ruritan National. Mr. Felts is survived by his wife of 53 years, Louise Taylor Felts; two sons, Ashton Meredith Felts Jr. and his wife, Jean Thompson Felts, of Wakefield and John Pate Felts of Washington, D.C.; three grandchildren, Ashton Meredith Felts III and his wife, Stephanie Crumpler Felts, Ellyn Page Hassell and her husband, Derek, and Taylor Kathryn Felts; two great-grandchildren, Cayla Brittle Felts and Ashton Pate Felts; and a sister, Marjorie Felts Pittman of Courtland. A brother, Robert Marvis Felts, and a sister, Kathryn Felts, predeceased him. A funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Friday in Millfield Baptist Church, Ivor, by the Rev. Steven M. McGlamery. Burial will be in Ivor Cemetery. A Masonic Rite Service, open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. today at Purviance Funeral Home, Wakefield. The family will receive friends at the funeral home following the service with visitation hours from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Memorial donations may be made to the building fund of Millfield Baptist Church, 11225 Ivor Road, Ivor, VA 23866; to Ivor Volunteer Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 228, Ivor, VA 23866; or to the HouseCalls Hospice Service, 102 N. Mechanic St., Franklin, VA 23851. Ashton Meredith FELTS, farmer, retired Supervisor, former peanut buyer, b. 10 Sep 1926, Southampton Co., d. 11 Jul 2000, at home, Berlin, interred in Ivor Cemetery*, 14 Jul 2000, "Virginian-Pilot" (Norfolk, VA), July 13, 2000, p. B9 *His parents are also buried there. Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, Ivor list: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/ivor.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/f432a2ob.txt