REMEMBERING ANNEWARD ASHLEY CONLIN

Anneward Ashley Conlin, 88, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, passed away on Thursday, July 3, 2025, of natural causes. 

Anneward was born to Ward and Nancy Ashley, in 1936, in Ann Arbor, where she and her two siblings were raised together. She is preceded in death by her husband, of 67 years, Patrick Joseph Conlin, who died in 2024. 

“Anneward is one of a kind,” was the consistent refrain heard from people who knew her from all walks of life. She was always attentive and authentic with everyone she encountered, sometimes stopping a stranger to let them know how much she liked their hair, or a waitress to let her know how beautiful her smile was. Conversely, Anneward let her grandchildren know when she thought that the latest tattoo or piercing, “perhaps should be the last.” 

Anneward and Pat bought their property on the East Side Drive in Beaver Island in 1959, where they then camped each summer until they built a summer home that has become a beloved retreat for the whole family. Each year, Conlin family members of all ages gratefully raise a toast to “Nana and Poppy,” as Pat and Anneward were lovingly referred to by their grandchildren. 

Pat first found out about Beaver Island through a small classified ad in the Detroit Free Press in the 1958, which described a Lake Michigan island to which Irish people had immigrated. Intrigued because of his own devotion to his ancestral Irish heritage, Pat and Anneward set off for the Island with Pat’s father, John W. Conlin. Though they had little money to speak of because Pat was still in college, they were so enamored with Beaver Island that they bought a beautiful lot on a land contract, at a time when very little else outside of town was developed. 

Anneward and Pat were the best of partners. It was love at first sight between the two of them, and they spent 67 wonderful years building a life together in and around Ann Arbor, where Pat grew to be a lawyer and then a Circuit Court Judge, and Anneward served on the Board of the Law Wives of Washtenaw County. Together, they had two children, Kelli and Patrick Jr. 

Each year as they were building their Beaver Island home they would come loaded down with lumber and hardware, and as Pat worked on the house, Anneward would cook up mountains of bluegills caught in Lake Genesereth. 

Anneward loved her family with a passion. When Pat had a heart attack at the young age of 39, she dove into healthier cooking techniques, even taking lessons from a master Chinese cook. While the rest of America was eating Hamburger Helper and hot dogs, the Conlin family was tucking into Moo Goo Gai Pan, Sichuan Bok Choy, and many other dishes that were at the time considered exotic. 

Anneward and Pat shared a love for travel, and it was no secret that one of her favorite places outside of Michigan was Mexico, where she loved the warm people, the vibrant colors, and the sense of adventure around every corner, as they explored in the old VW Bus they had borrowed. Their travels led them throughout Central America and South America, Europe and Asia, with many friends and family. 

But her greatest love of all was for her home state of Michigan. She loved the farm that they owned near Chelsea, loved her friends, and took the greatest joy in her family. Just before her death, she travelled with her daughter Kelli to Beaver Island, where she recounted with joy the years it had taken her and and Pat to build the family home. She looked up at the majestic white pines, at the glistening Lake Michigan, at the house they had built by hand and with love, and said, “We sure did have a wonderful life.” 

She is also preceded in death by her parents, Ward and Nancy Ashley, her brother Robert Ashley, and her sister Diane Barlow. 

Anneward is survived by her loving children, Kelli and Angie Martell; Patrick Jr. and Elaine Economou; and by the lights of her life, her adoring grandchildren, Patrick III, John, Ciaran, Rory, and Thomas.