Laurie (Lauren) Joan (Wittstruck) Askew

Laurie (Lauren) Joan Wittstruck Askew was born Ocotber 8, 1958 to Dwayne and Joan Conway Wittstruck in Lincoln, Nebraska.  She passed away after a long journey with cancer on May 21, 2026 in Malin, Oregon.

Growing up on the family dairy farm.  Laurie was active in 4H and FFA.  She was awarded the 4-H Presidential Achievement Award by President Gerald Ford and traveled the country extolling the virtues of 4-H as a member of the Report to the Nation Team.  She was the first girl to reach the finals of a Nebraska FFA speech competition, where she came in second.  The only mark against her was her voice was not low enough.

Laurie was an accomplished dairy judge, winning the Nebraska State 4-H competition twice, and participated in both the National 4-H and FFA dairy judging contests.

She was the Nebraska Dairy Princess, Ak-Sar-Ben Dairy Queen, and National Guernsey Queen.  She travelled Nebraska and the United States promoting dairy farming and Guernsey cattle.

This led to her meeting the one and only Bill Askew, getting married, and moving to Hilmar, California.  Their mutual love of farming and Guernsey cattle made for a grand union.  Together, they raised production winners, sale toppers and exported bulls and embryos world-wide.  Bill made her laugh each and every day, even when she didn't want to.

Laurie was cited as an Outstanding Young California Farmer by Governor Dukmejian, American Guernsey Association Outstanding Young Farmer and won a seat on the American Guernsey Association Board of Directors where she fought for and was responsible for the first ever Guernsey Embryo Sale (from her hotel room!).  She also brought back the Western National Guernsey Show, and founded the National Guernsey Young Farmer Advisory Group.  She was told she wouldn't be able to pull any of this off, so of course, she did.

Done with milking cows, Bill and Laurie moved to Oregon in the mid-2000's and learned to irrigate alfalfa with wheellines and began their successful Wagyu and Angus beef heard on their piece of paradise in Malin, Oregon.  Malin was settled by Czechs from southeast Nebraska, many from the Crete area.  They felt right at home there on Jelinek Road.

She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and retired from the University of California ANR Intermountain Research and Extension Center as Business Manager where she particularly enjoyed working on the agricultural research projects at the Center.

Besides here love of agriculture, she became a professional speaker and wedding singer at age 14, and donated her earnings to the Salvation Army.  Laurie played piano, guitar and clarinet and loved all types of music.  She also enjoyed weight lifting, genealogy, bird watching, photography, cooking and baking, and entertaining.  She and Bill loved going to watch the games of the San Francisco Giants, A's, Warriors and Sharks.  They were at the 1989 World Series game between the A's and Giants during the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco.

Laurie is predeceased by her father Dwayne Wittstruck; sister in law Holly Killham Wittstruck; grandparents John Conway, . A. Elmer and Wilhelmina Fischer Wittstruck, and Garland and Kathryn Weis Trew.  Uncle and Aunt Charles (Ma) and Rita Conwy McKinney, and beloved cousins David McKinney and Suzanne McKinney Kreifels.

Laurie leaves her husband Bill Askew, mother Joan Wittstruck, brothers Graig (Colleen) and Marc (Chris0 Wittstruck, sister in law Susan (Bill) Worthington, uncle and aunt Albert and Sally (Harrison) Conway and seven cousins.  Eight nieces and nephews.  Special friends Hele Pereira, Linda Witfoth, Deb Cosper and darling namesake Haley Lauren Longoria.

Thank you to the Merrill Clinic and Sky Lakes Center Treatment Center for the wonderful care you showed her.

Interment of cremains at the Centerville Cemetery in Martell, Nebraska and at the Malin Cemetery in Malin, Oregon at a later date.

If you'd like to make a memorial donation, please consider The Malin Historical Society at PO Box 29, Malin, OR 97632.  Some of you from southeastern Nebraska probable have or had relatives living there.  It is a special place.  

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Laurie (Lauren) Joan (Wittstruck) Askew, please visit our floral store.