SUSAN CLAYTON McASHAN, 95, died peacefully at home on Sunday, June 10, 2001. She was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 23, 1905, to Susan Vaughan Clayton and William Lockhart Clayton, the founder of Anderson, Clayton, & Co. and Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs in the Truman Administration. Mrs. McAshan moved to Houston with her family in 1916. She attended public schools in Houston, graduated from the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and attended Smith College, Class of 1928. She married Samuel Maurice McAshan, Jr. in 1928. The couple settled in Houston in 1931 but spent three years during World War II in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where Mr. McAshan worked as U.S. Purchasing agent. After the McAshans returned to Houston, Mrs. McAshan became active in community affairs in Houston. Among other endeavors, she helped the Julia C. Hester House build a new community center and she was instrumental in bringing John Biggers to Houston to start the Texas Southern University Art Department. She was the founder and a Life Trustee of the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. In 1971, Mrs. McAshan received the Margaret Douglas Medal from the Garden Club of America for her work in conservation education. She was a member of the Margaret Sanger Circle of Planned Parenthood of Houston. Mrs. McAshan was a Life Trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. An active member of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, she was also a member of the Garden Club of Houston, the Junior League of Houston and the River Oaks Country Club. Following Mr. McAshan's retirement as Chairman of Anderson, Clayton & Co., the couple spent their summers playing golf in Linville, North Carolina. Mrs. McAshan was preceded in death by her husband, and by two of her sisters, Ellen Clayton Garwood and Julia Clayton Baker.
(Houston Chronicle, 12 June 2001)