Edith Faye Ash; Blackfoot Descendant

Edith Faye Ash of Thousand Oaks, a retired circuit board maker at Hughes Electronics, died at home Friday following a sudden illness. She was 76.

The youngest of 15 children, Ash was a descendant of the Blackfoot tribe. Her father was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and belonged to the Blood tribe of Canada. When the tribe crossed the border into Montana, they became known as the Blackfoot. Ash’s mother was full-blooded Blackfoot.

Ash was born Feb. 19, 1920, on the Blackfoot Reservation in Browning, Mont. She was given up for adoption at age 2 and moved with her adopted parents to Billings, Mont. She attended school in Billings.

In 1928, she married John Benson Ash. They had a child and soon after moved to Spokane, Wash. Ash gave birth to a second child in the early 1930s, and about 10 years later, they moved to Los Angeles, where their youngest child, Kay Calcut, was born.

In Los Angeles, Ash worked as a medical secretary, Calcut said. At age 40, she went to work for Hughes Electronics, staying there for 16 years before retiring in 1976.

After her birth parents died in 1977, Ash returned to Billings and made contact with other members of her birth family.

“From then on her adopted family and her birth family became close,” Calcut said. Ash’s husband died in 1991. “They were married almost 52 years,” Calcut said. “When my father was alive, my mother’s whole life was built around him and the kids.”

In 1994, after her health began to fail, Ash moved into her daughter’s home in Thousand Oaks.

“She was a very loving person and she always had a beautiful smile on her face,” Calcut said.

In addition to Calcut, Ash is survived by a daughter, Mary Patricia Jenks of Tri-Cities, Wash; two sons, Kim Ash of Tri-Cities, Wash., and Patrick Ash of Lawndale; 13 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be held today from 5 to 8 p.m. at Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary, Thousand Oaks. A graveside service will be held Tuesday at 1 p.m., at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. Burial will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery.