Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Jane Simpson

Davie Community Foundation

Ashton Gabrielle Brown was a beautiful young woman and mother with a passion for life.

Sadly, this young family was unexpectedly taken from this world on April 18. The story is probably familiar to many in our community who knew Ashton Brown and her family. (The three are believed to have been killed by her boyfriend and the father of the children, who then took his own life.)

Ashton’s parents don’t want the tragedy of what happened on that day in April to be the end of her story.

They opened the Ashton G. Brown Memorial Scholarship last week to remember Ashton’s 27th birthday on Nov. 14. The scholarship will remember Ashton while helping high school athletes from Davie County High School.

Ashton Brown was a kind soul, according to her family and friends. She loved sports as a young girl, playing basketball and softball from an early age. She played both sports all four years of high school and went on to play collegiate softball at Shaw University in Raleigh for two seasons before transferring to Winston-Salem State University.

Ashton was a 2014 scholarship recipient of the Davie County Training School – Central Davie High School Reunion Scholarship under the Davie Community Foundation. She pursued a bachelor’s degree in birth-kindergarten education with a minor in early intervention.

Following graduation from Winston-Salem State in 2019, Ashton was offered a position as a special education teacher at South Fork Elementary in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School District. She had a passion for children, especially those with special needs.

Ashton had two children of her own, Bella Rose and Brixtyn. She was a wonderful teacher and an even better mother.

“She was a mama that loved her babies,” said Christina Stuckey, Ashton’s mother. “They were everything to her.”

In June 2022, Ashton’s friends hosted a softball tournament in her memory. Organizer Valerie Langley played softball with Ashton and knew it was “her first love before her kids.”

“Ashton had a great sense of humor and always kept the team upbeat,” said Langley.

Brian Turner, one of Ashton’s former softball coaches said she was a player that “gave it her all.”

Ashton’s friends and family plan to host the tournament annually to add to the scholarship established in her memory.

Anyone wishing to add to the scholarship can send a donation to the Davie Community Foundation, PO Box 546, Mocksville, NC 27028 (make checks payable to the foundation with the scholarship name in the memo section), or donate online at daviefoundation.org. Click on the “Donate” button and choose “Ashton G. Brown Memorial Scholarship” from the “Allocate Donation” drop down.

As a community we will honor and remember a beautiful young woman and her two children every time the Ashton G. Brown Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a Davie High athlete. You must believe that Ashton will be rooting for each one of them from above.

To learn more about the foundation, contact Simpson at (336) 753-6903 or jsimpson@daviefoundation.org or visit www.daviefoundation.org.