Martha Jean Ashworth Lambert

MARTHA JEAN LAMBERT, 82, of Bland, VA, passed away Saturday, April 25, 2026 at Wythe County Community Hospital. She was born December 14,1943 in Bluefield, WV, the daughter of the late Hugh Taylor & Sadie Clara Whittaker Ashworth.

Jean was a member of Central Church. She loved her church family and had certain members she loved to pick on, especially Phillip Earls and Barry Havens.

She enjoyed live music and tried to attend the White Gate Jamboree and Central Pickers events when she could. She enjoyed her Senior Citizens group and enjoyed riding the bus to the Library for Bingo and to the grocery store. The bus drivers kept a close eye on her and were very special to her.

She loved to pick on Frankie Gray and he would make sure she could get to the cannery to can when she needed to.

She loved children and enjoyed keeping up with the children in her church and in the community.

In recent years, she was challenged by her loss of hearing and eyesight, but she was strongly independent and wanted to be in charge of her affairs. Being very mischievous and fun loving, she loved to be with people and pick with her friends. She was quite the social butterfly and enjoyed calling many people throughout the day on the telephone to keep up with what was going on in and around Bland.

Jean had a large support system of great friends and caregivers who loved her, and she will be greatly missed by those who loved her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Hugh Taylor & Sadie Whittaker Ashworth and her husband, Frazier Filmore Lambert.

Left to cherish her memory are her beloved church family; her half-brother, Richard Burnette Whittaker; her special cousins, Alan & Mary Ashworth, Molly Thompson, Jean Harman and Dorothy & Wade Dickens; special friends, Ronnie & Jane Hall, Steve & Sandra Kelley and Rusty Bird and family; and numerous special friends and neighbors.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 12:00P.M. at A. Vest & Sons Funeral Home Chapel, White Gate, with Pastor Alan Ashworth officiating. Burial will follow in Temple Hill Cemetery.

There will be an hour of viewing prior to the funeral service.

The Lambert family is in the care of A. Vest & Sons Funeral Home, White Gate, avestandsons.com, (540) 921-2985.