Estella died October 21, 2013 in Lompoc, California. She was born October 13, 1913 on the family farm near Owensville, Missouri, the third child of the late Henry F. Koch and Caroline M. (Drewel) Koch. The family grew to become ten children and she learned early to have many responsibilities of caring for others, which carried on through her life. Her first fob was in St Louis. That changed in 1934 when her sister Gertrude and husband Howard from Calif. honeymooned in Missouri and persuaded her to move to Calif. and get a better job. There she worked as shipping clerk for Alberty Health Foods. At the Coconut Groove, Estella met Lester M. Ash dancing to Freddie Martin’s Orchestra and Merv Griffin’s singing. On Nov 6, 1948 they were married and she went to work at Douglas Aircraft in charge of the records of tools used to build aircraft. She was fondly referred to as “Mrs. Accountability” by her co-workers and remained there for 30 years until retirement from the company then known as Boeing Aircraft. In the 1950’s Estella and Les built a house in Malibu, Calif. and their joy was the flower garden they tended. Beautiful bouquets were supplied for many occasions for family and friends. They were wonderful generous hosts to parties, loved music and dancing, and traveling. They were tour directors for McDonnell-Douglas employees through Les’ job with the company traveling to the Orient and Hawaii. Estella was preceded in death by her parents: Henry and Caroline Koch; brothers and sisters: Calvin (wife Marge) Koch, Virgil (wife Florence) Koch, Clifford (wife Gladys) Koch, Telfair (wife Patsy) Koch, Raymond Koch, Gertrude (husband Howard) Miller, Bernice (husband John) Morton, Dorothy (husband Jack) McGregor; and brother-in-law George Limberg. She is survived by her sister Eunice “June” Limberg, many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. She was a great inspiration to everyone with her keen mind, memory and spunk throughout her life and even until her death. A time of visitation will be held Thursday October 31st from 2:00-5:00 p.m. at Charles Carroll Funeral Home in Ventura. Burial will be held at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura at 1:30 p.m. Friday November 1st with a Memorial service following at 3:00 p.m. at Charles Carroll Funeral Home. Services will be conducted by Rev. Dr. Randy Working of Lompoc Presbyterian Church, Lompoc, Calif. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Lompoc Prebyterian Church 1600 Berkeley Drive Lompoc, CA, (805) 736-6569
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.9.5