Fullerton Activist Jean Askham, 75, Dies

A memorial service will be held Friday in Fullerton for Jean Askham, a longtime activist with the League of Women Voters and president of the Orange County chapters, who died June 30 of complications from a stroke. She was 75.

Askham, of Fullerton, joined the league in New York in 1965 to push for passage of local school bonds, said her daughter, Barbara Askham of Albany, N.Y.

“She was always a crusader,” her daughter said Monday. “If there was a leadership position that needed to be filled, she never shied away from that. She’s always been a real doer.”

Askham served on the league’s New York state board from 1976 to 1982. She and her husband, Frederick, moved to Fullerton in 1982, where she joined the league’s local chapter. She served on the California state league board from 1985 to 1989. In 1990, she became vice president of the national League of Women Voters, serving in that position until 1992.

Recently, Askham was the league’s representative on the California First Amendment Coalition and was active in helping organize an October open-government conference at Cal State Fullerton. She served for three terms as president of Orange County’s four league chapters, finishing her last term on June 10.

The memorial service will begin at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1231 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton.

Those wishing to make a memorial contribution can send it in care of the League of Women Voters of Orange County, 3320 E. Chapman Ave., Suite 166, Orange, CA 92869.

Askham is survived by her husband, Frederick; a daughter, Barbara; a son and daughter-in-law Frederic and Jane Askham and their two children, Frederic and Mary Jean, all of Loveland, Colo.; and a brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Sandra McLuckie of Eastham, Mass.