Nell “Nellie Ruth” Ashley Sandroni, 86, died on April 20, 2023, at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, surrounded by her family. She was born in a log cabin on January 10, 1937, in Union County, to Bertha Murphree Ashley and William Daniel Ashley, of Lone Star. For reasons too long to explain here, her family lovingly called her “Eup.”
The oldest of five siblings, Nell attended elementary school at Lone Star, a one-room schoolhouse within walking distance of the Ashley farm. She started at age four. At Hurricane High School she was a standout basketball player, once scoring 57 points in a single game. After graduating in 1953, she went on to Northeast Mississippi Junior College and then Delta State Teacher’s College; she graduated in 1957 and later earned a master’s degree from Ole Miss.
Nell spent her entire teaching career at Shaw High School, in Bolivar County, where she also coached basketball and tennis. In those early days, she spent her summers working for the Department of Parks and Recreation in Memphis, where to her delight she met Elvis—twice. (A favorite family picture shows Nell with Elvis and a group of their friends in Elvis’s front yard, pre-Graceland.)
Nell had just finished her first year of teaching when she met Raymond Sandroni, a cotton and soybean farmer from a big Italian family in the Delta. They married on August 27, 1961, and made their home in Shaw. Between February 1963 and May 1968, they had a daughter, Jill, and two sons, Brad and Todd, and enjoyed watching them excel in sports and academics, ultimately at Indianola Academy and at Ole Miss. When Nell retired from Shaw High after 33 years, she discovered that she despised retirement. Her great friend Sammye Short suggested that she substitute for her as a rural mail carrier, which Nell proceeded to do (for a decade), loving it. In her spare time, she volunteered at the Shaw Library and the Bolivar County Hospital gift shop.
After Raymond died, in 2009, Nell hated to leave Shaw, her friends there, and her dear nephew, Jeff Sandroni, who lived across the street; but she courageously uprooted herself in 2014 and moved to Tupelo. She enjoyed supporting Ingomar basketball—her brother Norris was the legendary coach—and her family, especially her seven grandchildren. In 2018, when she was celebrated as the Daily Journal’s Cook of the Week, she talked about how much she loved making her grandkids’ favorite foods: “One grandson wants chicken and dumplings and the other one could eat spaghetti gravy every day of the world.” Eup was family-famous for her spaghetti—she kept a freezer full of homemade gravy so that she could easily give it away to relatives and friends. Nell’s countless charms included that spaghetti, her melodic laugh, her Coca-Cola addiction, her newfound love for the Golden State Warriors, and her insistence on beginning Christmas Eve lunch on time.
She was preceded in death by both of her brothers, Rex LaWayne Ashley (Dorothy Gayle), of Pontotoc, and Norris Ray Ashley (Pat), of Ingomar, and by her sister Joann Ashley Williams (Billy), of Tupelo. Her surviving sibling is her sister Lazette Ashley Stevens (Earl), of Amory. She is also survived by her children, Jill Sandroni Seabrook (Hunter), of Memphis and Oxford; Brad Sandroni (Angie), of Winchester, Virginia; and Todd Sandroni (Lisa), of Tupelo; and by her grandchildren, Mary-Ashley Seabrook Kurian (Arjun), of St. Louis; Hunt Seabrook (Paige), of Memphis; Kate Seabrook (who is set to marry Carlos Rivera-Peraza in July), of Memphis and Oxford; Taylor Sandroni, of Tupelo; Peyton Sandroni, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Ray Sandroni (McKenzie), of Memphis; and Will Sandroni, of Tupelo. Her dozens of nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews will also miss her, terribly.
The visitation is scheduled for Sunday, April 23, from 1:30 – 3:30, at Holland Funeral Directors in Tupelo. The funeral will be held on Monday, April 24, at 2:00 at Shaw Baptist Church, in Shaw, Mississippi with visitation from 1:00-2:00. Nell’s nephews will serve as the pallbearers: Ben Ashley, Burt Ashley, Jonathan Ashley, Jeff Sandroni, Andy Stevens, and Mike Williams. Honorary pallbearers are Bert Mann, Duke Morgan, Dennis Short, and James Paul Robinson.
In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to Shaw Cemetery (P.O. Box 726, Shaw, Miss., 38773), Shady Grove Church (1000 Shady Grove Rd., Pontotoc, Miss., 38863), or Ingomar Basketball (1384 CR 101, New Albany, Miss., 38652). Holland Funeral Directors (662-840-5000) is honored to be serving their friends. Condolences may be emailed to hollandfuneraldirectors@comcast.net
