charlie evans
1949-1993
Life Story
Early Life in Newton County
Charlie Evans was born on March 25, 1949, in Mississippi, into the large family of Albert Evans and Francis Wheaton Evans.
He grew up in the Lawrence community of Newton County, where generations of the Evans family had established deep roots through farming, family, and church life. Charlie was one of the younger children in a household that included both the children born to Albert and Frances and older half-siblings from Albert’s earlier marriage.
While many of his brothers and sisters eventually left Mississippi, Charlie remained in the community where he had been raised.
Life in Lawrence
As an adult, Charlie continued to make his home in Lawrence, Mississippi, including along Lawrence-Hazel Road.
His life therefore differed from that of many members of his extended family who became part of the twentieth-century migration away from Newton County. Some of Charlie’s siblings established homes in Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan, while others eventually lived in Florida, Connecticut, New York, and even overseas.
Charlie remained in Lawrence.
That geographic continuity kept him close to the Newton County community where his parents and earlier generations of the Evans family had lived.
Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church
Charlie was a member of Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Lawrence, a congregation with longstanding connections to his family.
His father, Albert Evans, had served the church as a deacon, while his mother, Francis Wheaton Evans, was active in several areas of congregational life, including the Mother’s Board, Sunday School, and Pastor’s Aide.
Charlie’s own membership continued another generation of the family’s association with Jerusalem.
A Family Spread Across the Country
By the time of Charlie’s death in 1993, the large family into which he had been born had spread far beyond Newton County.
His surviving brothers included Ezell Evans of Hawthorne, Florida; Flim, Amos, Earnest, and James Evans of Detroit, Michigan; Lonnie, Loston, and Nadie Evans of Lawrence; and Tommy Evans of Lake, Mississippi.
His surviving sisters included Maggie Sankey, Bernice Williams, and Josie Nettles of Detroit; Gertrude Evans of Norwalk, Connecticut; Jessie Evans of Port Chester, New York; Rosie Knight of Lawrence; Jerisha Whitteney of Newton; Vennie Evans, then living in Yokota, Japan; and Alice Evans of Forest, Mississippi.
This survivor list provides more than the names of Charlie’s relatives. It offers a snapshot of the remarkable geographic reach of the Evans family by the early 1990s.
From a family once concentrated around the farms of Lawrence, brothers and sisters were now living across Mississippi and in Michigan, Florida, Connecticut, New York, and Japan.
Charlie, however, remained part of the family’s continuing presence at home in Newton County.
Death and Burial
Charlie Evans passed away on July 26, 1993, at the age of forty-four.
His funeral was held on Sunday, August 1, 1993, at 3:00 p.m. at Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, with the Rev. R. B. Denmark officiating.
Following the service, Charlie was laid to rest in the Lawrence Community Cemetery. Funeral arrangements were handled by Holifield Funeral Home.
His survivors included his many brothers and sisters as well as numerous nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.
Legacy
Charlie Evans’s life represents another side of the Evans family’s twentieth-century history.
He was born into a family whose children eventually followed remarkably different paths. Some left Mississippi and became part of the migration streams that carried members of the Evans family to Detroit and other communities throughout the country. Others established lives elsewhere in the South. By 1993, one sister was even living overseas in Japan.
Charlie chose—or circumstances led him—to remain in Lawrence.
There he maintained his connection to the community in which he had grown up and to Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, the congregation that had also played an important role in the lives of his parents.
His 1993 obituary consequently preserves something larger than the story of one man’s death. Through its unusually extensive list of surviving siblings and their residences, it captures a family that had expanded outward from rural Newton County across the nation and beyond.
Yet Lawrence remained one of its anchors.
Charlie Evans was among those who stayed—another generation of the Evans family whose life remained rooted in the community his family had called home for decades.
Resting Place
Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery
Photos/Albums
Sources
- Social Security Administration records, Charlie Evans, born March 25, 1949, Mississippi; records documenting his later residence in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi.
- “Charlie Evans,” Scott County Times (Forest, MS), August 4, 1993, 2. The obituary identifies Charlie as a member of Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Lawrence and documents his surviving family members and their places of residence.
- Ibid. Charlie’s surviving siblings were living across Mississippi, Michigan, Florida, Connecticut, New York, and Japan, providing a valuable snapshot of the geographic dispersal of the Evans family by 1993.
- Ibid. Charlie Evans died July 26, 1993, at age forty-four. Funeral services were held August 1 at Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, with the Rev. R. B. Denmark officiating. Burial followed in Lawrence Community Cemetery, with arrangements by Holifield Funeral Home.
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