James "Ashley" Campbell

James Ashley Campbell, known to all of his family and friends as Ashley, went to his heavenly 
rest on May 13, 2023, after a short battle with a terminal illness.  
 
Ashley was born in 1966 in Taylor County, Florida, to James Marshall Campbell and Patsy Carol 
Morrison, and grew up in Perry, Florida, where he graduated from Taylor County High School in 
1984.  
 
Ashley chose learning by life experiences and went straight to work after high school. After 
managing, owning, and then selling his own furniture store in Opelika, Alabama, Ashley 
returned to Tallahassee, Florida, and began his public service career working as a records 
manager for the Florida Department of State and the Florida Department of Corrections. Ashley 
retired from the Florida Department of Corrections in November 2022. 
 
When Ashley returned to Tallahassee from Opelika, he met Roxann—who he always called his 
“pretty redheaded girl”—and they began sharing their world in 2000, married in 2005, and were 
together at his time of passing.   
 
Ashley loved the old days and the old ways and found his greatest joys in the simple 
things—walking the fields and woods looking for arrowheads, catching a fine bass, shooting a 
bow, walking behind a good gun dog, the pursuit of a trophy whitetail, hearing a wild turkey 
break a spring morning wide open with a gobble, navigating the  wild rivers and streams and the 
Gulf of Mexico he’d known since childhood with just a compass and a prayer, and preparing to 
perfection the day’s game or catch and serving it to his friends and neighbors. Ashley knew that 
these seemingly ordinary arts were more important to the soul than their simplicity might 
suggest. 
 
Together, Ashley and Roxann bred and raised German Shorthair Pointers.  Their kennel has been 
wildly successful in the field and in the show ring, and Ashley took great pride in their breeding 
and training programs. Ashley was most proud, though, to show off his brilliant dogs in the field.  
He was especially fond of taking his friends quail hunting and giving others the hard to come by 
old-time experience of walking behind and shooting over superior gun dogs in the famed Red 
Hills Region. 
 
When Ashley was in the woods or on the water, he lived as though he would rather be right 
there, in that moment, with those friends, in that place, with nothing to prove, than anywhere 
else in the world.  Ashley knew that a man’s wealth was not the result of something bought and 
sold, but was instead found in life, love, and the things that keep friendship fresh.  Like all good 
and honest Old Florida woodsmen, Ashley was a born storyteller and enriched the lives of his 
family and friends with tales and yarns of his adventures (and misadventures!).  When 
something fired his soul, Ashley wanted to share it with others. 
 
 
Ashley was preceded in death by his eternally beloved maternal grandparents, Marvin and Betty 
Morrison of Perry, Florida, and his paternal grandparents.  Ashley is survived by his wife, 
Roxann, of Havana, Florida, and his daughter Chloe Clark (Ben) of Huntsville, Alabama, along 
with members of the Campbell and Morrison families. 
 
In lieu of traditional remembrances or a formal funeral service, Ashley asked that for those 
desiring to offer a memorial, gifts be made to Big Bend Hospice Foundation, 
www.bigbendhospice.org, or to the Southeast German Shorthair Pointer Rescue, 
www.segsprescue.org. 
 
Ashley was better for having been loved by you all, and we are all better for having been loved 
by Ashley.

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