dewey evans
1933-1992
Life Story
Early Life in Central Mississippi
Dewey Evans was born on April 27, 1933, in Newton County, Mississippi, to Thomas Evans, Jr. and Armanda “Mandy” Evans. He was born into a large African American family whose early life was rooted in the farms and rural communities of east-central Mississippi.¹
By 1940, the Evans family was living in Mogulusha, Neshoba County, just beyond their Newton County roots. The census reported that the family had been living on a farm in rural Newton County five years earlier, indicating that their residence in Neshoba County represented a move during Dewey’s early childhood.²
Seven-year-old Dewey appeared in the census under the badly recorded name “Dure Earns.” His father was similarly recorded as Thomas Earns and his mother as Maudy Earns. Dewey shared the household with a large group of brothers and sisters: Willie M., Lela M., B. Wesley, Lillie M., A.C., Nathan, V. Ethel, Charlie W., and Joe L.²
The family’s stay in Neshoba County appears to have been temporary. By 1950, Thomas and Mandy Evans and their children were once again living in Newton County, on a farm outside the Union city limits.³
Dewey, recorded as “Dewery Evans,” was still living at home and working as an unpaid farm helper. His brother Nathaniel was likewise employed on the family farm, illustrating how the labor of the Evans children contributed to the agricultural household.³
There is a discrepancy concerning Dewey’s age in this census. He was recorded as fourteen, although an April 27, 1933, birth date would have made him sixteen at the time of the 1950 enumeration. Such variations in ages and names are common in census records, and later records support 1933 as his year of birth.¹
Marriage and Family Life in Union
Dewey remained closely connected to Union as he entered adulthood. He married Melvina Bailey, daughter of Annie Lee Bailey, and together they established their family there.⁴
Dewey and Melvina became the parents of four children. Their sons were Terry Evans and Paul Evans, and their daughters were Annie Joyce Evans Blalock and Bobbie Geniel Evans McDonald.⁴
The family remained firmly rooted in Union. By the time of Melvina’s death, all four of their children were still identified as Union residents, and Dewey and Melvina had become grandparents to eight grandchildren.⁴
Melvina was a member of Rose Hill Baptist Church, adding another connection between the family and the religious life of the local community.⁴
A Fatal Accident on Highway 15
One of the most dramatic events documented in Dewey’s life occurred in the early morning hours of a Tuesday, July 30, 1963.
At approximately 5:00 a.m., Dewey was driving along Highway 15 about one mile south of Union. Riding in the automobile with him were three other Union men: W. A. Hadley, Leroy Hays, and X. L. Walton.⁵
On a straight stretch of highway, the automobile crashed into a bridge.
Hadley, described in the contemporary newspaper as a disabled veteran of Union, was riding in the front passenger seat and was killed. Dewey, Hays, and Walton were reported critically injured and were taken to Laird Hospital.⁵
Union Night Marshal George Smith provided the newspaper with details of the accident. Smith reported that Dewey said someone in the automobile had attempted to grab the steering wheel and that the car subsequently went out of control.⁵ Because this explanation came through Dewey’s reported statement to the marshal, rather than from a documented determination of the accident’s cause, it remains the contemporary account rather than a proven conclusion.
The newspaper’s headline—“One Negro Killed, Others Are Hurt in Auto Wreck”—also reflects the racial language routinely used by many Southern newspapers of the period. Behind that terminology was a serious local tragedy involving four men from Union: one man lost his life, while Dewey and two others survived serious injuries.
For Dewey, the accident became a dramatic episode in a life otherwise centered largely around work and family in the Union community.
The Loss of Melvina
Years later, Dewey experienced another profound loss when his wife, Melvina, died at Laird Hospital on April 16, at the age of 51.⁴
Her funeral was held on Friday, April 21, at Rose Hill Baptist Church, where Reverend George Dotson officiated at the 11:00 a.m. service. Following the service, Melvina was laid to rest in Little Mountain Cemetery. Stephens Funeral Home handled the arrangements.⁴
Her obituary identified Dewey as her surviving husband and named their four children and eight grandchildren. It also documented the larger Bailey family to which Melvina belonged.
Dewey was now a widower after having built a family with Melvina in the community where much of his own life had unfolded.
Leaving Mississippi for Florida
At some point during his later years, Dewey left the Union community and relocated to Florida.
His move placed him among several members of Thomas and Mandy Evans’s large family who eventually established lives outside Mississippi. While some of his siblings migrated to such places as Chicago, Flint, and Omaha, Dewey’s journey eventually carried him south to Florida.⁶
Records place his final residence in Pasco County, Florida.¹
Despite the distance, Dewey’s connections to Union remained strong.
Death and Return Home
Dewey Evans died in Florida on February 16, 1992, at the age of 58.¹
News of his death soon reached the community he had left behind in Mississippi. A brief church or community notice announced:
“Brother Dewey Evans of FL died and will be buried in Union this week.”⁷
The notice added that Dewey was the brother of “Sister Maude Evans of Union.” This was apparently a reference to his sister Willie Maude Evans Larkin, who was still living at the time of Dewey’s death and survived him until 2006.⁷
Although the notice used “Maude Evans” rather than her married name, the identification is consistent with the known Evans family structure and the chronology of Willie Maude’s life.
Dewey’s body was returned from Florida to Mississippi for burial in Union.
The journey brought him back to the place that had anchored so much of his life.
A Life That Returned Home
Dewey Evans lived for only 58 years, but the surviving records allow us to follow him through several distinct stages of twentieth-century Black life in east-central Mississippi.
He was born into a large rural family during the Great Depression. As a child, he moved with his parents from Newton County into neighboring Neshoba County and then returned with them to the Union area. As a teenager, he worked without pay on the family farm alongside his father and brothers.
As an adult, he married Melvina Bailey and raised four children in Union. He survived a devastating automobile accident on Highway 15 that claimed the life of another Union man. He later endured the death of Melvina, his wife and the mother of his children.
Eventually, like many members of his generation, Dewey left Mississippi. His path led not north but south to Florida.
Yet his story remained tied to Union.
It was near Union that he worked the family farm as a young man. It was there that he and Melvina raised Terry, Paul, Annie Joyce, and Bobbie Geniel. It was on Highway 15 just south of town that he survived one of the most serious events of his life. And when Dewey died hundreds of miles away in Florida in 1992, his family brought him back to Union for burial.
His life was therefore marked by both movement and belonging. Dewey Evans left Mississippi, but Union remained home—and ultimately, it was there that his journey ended.
Resting Place
Union, Mississippi
Photos/Albums
Sources
- U.S. Social Security death record for Dewey Evans, born April 27, 1933, Mississippi; died February 16, 1992; last residence Pasco County, Florida; digital database, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
- 1940 U.S. census, Neshoba County, Mississippi, Mogulusha, population schedule, sheet 13A, household of Thomas “Earns”; Dewey Evans enumerated as “Dure Earns,” age 7. The household reported residence on a farm in rural Newton County, Mississippi, in 1935; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
- 1950 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, dwelling 211, household of Thomas Evans, outside Union city limits; “Dewery Evans,” recorded as age 14 and an unpaid farm helper. The household was enumerated on a farm, and Dewey’s brother Nathaniel was also recorded as a farm helper; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
- “Melvina Evans,” The Union Appeal (Union, Mississippi), April 26, 1989, 8. Melvina Evans, age 51, of Union, died April 16, 1989, at Laird Hospital. Funeral services were held April 21 at Rose Hill Baptist Church, with Rev. George Dotson officiating, followed by burial in Little Mountain Cemetery. The obituary identified Dewey Evans as her husband and named their four children—Terry Evans, Paul Evans, Annie Joyce Blalock, and Bobbie Geniel McDonald—and eight grandchildren.
- “One Negro Killed, Others Are Hurt in Auto Wreck,” The Newton Record (Newton, Mississippi), July 31, 1963, 1. The article reported that at approximately 5:00 a.m. on July 30, 1963, an automobile driven by Dewey Evans struck a bridge on Highway 15 approximately one mile south of Union. Passenger W. A. Hadley was killed, while Dewey Evans, Leroy Hays, and X. L. Walton were reported critically injured and taken to Laird Hospital. Union Night Marshal George Smith reported that Dewey said someone in the automobile had attempted to grab the steering wheel before the vehicle went out of control.
- “Nathaniel Evans, Sr.,” homegoing notice, Aikens Funeral Home, Tampa, Florida, September 2010. Nathaniel’s obituary identifies Dewey Evans as his deceased brother and documents the wider geographic dispersal of the Evans siblings, whose residences included Mississippi, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, and Georgia.
- “Brother Dewey Evans of FL died,” community news item, The Newton Record (Newton, Mississippi), February 26, 1992, 30. The notice reported that Dewey Evans of Florida had died and would be buried in Union that week. It identified him as the brother of “Sister Maude Evans of Union,” apparently referring to his sister Willie Maude Evans Larkin, who survived Dewey and died in 2006.
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