Kristin King Ashford Delp

November 21, 1949 - December 25, 2023

Kristin Ashford Delp was born in 1949 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and died December 25, 2023 in New York. She was the daughter of the late Glendall Lee and Lila Holmes King. She was the oldest of four children and moved with her family throughout her childhood with her father, who relocated often for medical training and the U.S. Navy.

Kristin graduated from Frank L. Ashley High School in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1967, and Wake Forest University in 1971, also taking courses at Belmont Abbey College and UNC Greensboro to gain her teaching credentials. It was at Wake Forest that she met her first husband, Richard Ashford, to whom she was married for 16 years and had two children. She married again to David Delp in 1991 and spent 32 years with him until her passing.

After college graduation, she taught eighth-grade English in Philadelphia. She later worked at the Smyth County Public Library in Marion, Virginia. She then became the school librarian at Sugar Grove School in Sugar Grove, Virginia, where she spent the next three decades. Her students remember her as the person who sparked their love for books and a source of love and comfort.

Kristin loved children and animals, almost to the exclusion of all else. Over the years, she gave a home to countless cats and dogs, plus the occasional injured bunny and several hermit crabs. She lived to spend time with her children and grandchildren, and liked nothing more than to snuggle a small child and read a story. She had endless patience and would sit for hours helping with homework or playing an imaginary game. Kristin enjoyed books, movies and television ("Dancing With The Stars"). She also wrote beautiful letters, shared hilarious stories, and was always up for a practical joke and sparklers.

She is survived by her husband David Delp, sister Jane (Gary) Fulton and brothers Richard (Jennifer Jackson) and David (Betsy) King; children Brian (Katie) Ashford, Kate (Mike) Carpenter, Ann (Andy) Brewer, Amy (Kevin) O'Brien and Bobbi (Michael) Weich; grandchildren Ash, Ben and Abby Ashford, Lila and Casey Carpenter, Tyler, Lilly and Grace Caudill, Fox, Lydia, Lucas and Peyton Brewer, Keeley and Kerrington O'Brien, and Foster and Savannah Weich; and great-grandchild Jocelyn Caudill; along with other nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews.

A service will be held later in the year. The family has requested in lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Kristin Delp may be sent to your local no-kill animal shelter or ASPCA, or to Furkids.org, a large no-kill shelter organization in Georgia.