Virginia Louise “Jenny” Croft Askew

Posted on October 30, 2024

Virginia Louise “Jenny” Croft Askew left this earth on her birthday after 96 years. Born in 1928 in Jacksonville, she spent her formative years living in Steinhatchee, helping her aunt, Clara Rogers Lamb run a small, rural grocery store. Jenny’s Aunt Clara could only afford to send her for one year to the Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee in 1946. But that one year of college meant the world to Jenny, and later helped her win the job of teacher in Steinhatchee for a small class of first through sixth grade students. She then moved to Jacksonville, where she worked for the Crane Company and met and married Clarence Afton Askew, a Navy sailor from Fresno, Calif. Once Clarence left the Navy, they lived in California where their daughters, Lynn (Stump) and Tammie (Ross) were born. They then moved back to Florida, settling in Perry where their youngest child, Kristy (Andrews), was born. Jenny was a devout and longtime member of the First Baptist Church of Perry, and had many wonderful friends there, as well as from her former places of work, Martin Electronics and Sportcraft. She was a devoted mother and stalwart FSU Seminole. She and Clarence attended all home games in person for decades, beginning in 1977 until his death in 1995. She is survived by all three of her children, eight grandchildren and 10 greatgrandchildren.