When Lou Elton Ashby was born on 25 May 1917, in Ohio, Kentucky, United States, her father, Chester Ashby, was 33 and her mother, Bertha Kuykendall, was 25. She married Lester P Gardner on 3 December 1947, in Reno, Washoe, Nevada, United States. She died on 25 April 1994, in Klamath Falls, Klamath, Oregon, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Klamath Memorial Park, Klamath Falls, Klamath, Oregon, United States.