Mrs. Melissa Darlene Elswick Hess, age 53, of Asheboro, North Carolina, passed away Thursday (December 23, 2021) at her home. Born September 9, 1968 in Alexandria, Virginia, she was a daughter of Dolly Gay Helton Elswick and the late Harold Ray Elswick. She was a 1986 graduate of Garden High School and had earned an Associates’ Degree from Strayers University. She had lived in Asheboro for the past eight years, moving there from Abingdon, Virginia. She had formerly been employed as an accounting clerk and a pre-school and 5th grade teacher at a Christian School. She had a great talent for making others smile. She enjoyed fishing, crafting, cooking, and antiquing, but her greatest joy was spending time with her friends and family.
In addition to her father, she was preceded in death by one sister, Cheri Creech, her maternal grandparents, Elijah and Mabel Helton, and paternal grandparents, Jessee and Ruth Elswick.
In addition to her mother, survivors include her husband, Gary Hess; three children, Matthew Shelton and wife, Audrey, Emily Beverly and companion, Jeremiah Rogers, and Lindsey Beverly; step-daughter, Tiffany Cole and husband, Jonathan; five grandchildren, Nicholas Davis, Bradley Pettis, Isabella Davis, Silas Pettis, and Sadie Helbert; special uncles, Wayne Elswick and Mark Elswick; special friends, Laura Snoddy and Cheryl Elliott; brother-in-law, John Creech and wife, Kimberly; several cousins and friends also survive.
Funeral services will be conducted at 11:00 AM Wednesday in the Honaker Funeral Home Chapel, Honaker, Virginia with Rev. Jim Fuller officiating. Interment will follow in Greenhills Memory Gardens at Claypool Hill, Virginia.
Pallbearers will be Kalvin Hess, Jay Rogers, Mark Blankenship, Michael Blankenship, Jonathon Cole, Barry Snoddy, Wayne Hale, and Greg Harris.
The family will receive friends at the Honaker Funeral Home after 6:00 PM Tuesday.