everliner collier evans
1894-1977
Life Story
Early Life in Newton County
Everliner Collier Evans, whose name appears in records as Evalina, Evelina, and Everliner, was born on April 23, 1894, in Newton County, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Patrick “Pat” Collier and Laura Black Collier and grew up in the rural Lawrence community of Beat 4.
She spent her childhood in a large farming household surrounded by siblings Lida, David, Will, Mary Bell, Edd, Jessie, Mary Ella, Patrick Jr., Annie, Wallace, and other relatives who formed part of one of the area’s longstanding African American families. The 1900 census records six-year-old Everliner living with her parents, siblings, and grandmother Mary Black, whose life connected the family to an earlier generation that had lived through slavery and emancipation.
Like many children in rural Mississippi, Everliner learned the value of hard work at an early age. By 1910, she was contributing to the family’s livelihood as a farm laborer while also attending school. Despite the educational barriers faced by Black children during the Jim Crow era, she learned to read and write, skills that would serve her throughout her life.
First Marriage to Boyd Walker
During her young adulthood, Everliner married Boyd Walker, a laborer from Mississippi.
Evidence of their marriage appears in the 1912–1913 Laurel City Directory, which lists “Boyd Walker (Evalina)” as residents of Laurel, Mississippi. The directory provides one of the earliest documented references to Everliner as a married woman.
From this marriage came at least one child:
- Waddie Walker (born about 1913–1914)
Everliner’s first marriage to Boyd Walker ended sometime before 1920. While a divorce record has not yet been located, census and later records indicate that Boyd remained alive until 1972, making it clear that the marriage ended through separation or divorce rather than widowhood. Following the dissolution of that marriage, Everliner married Easmond Evans and began the next chapter of her life.
Marriage to Easmond Evans
Sometime before 1920, Everliner married Easmond Evans, whose name appears in records as Easmond, Esmond, and Eastman Evans.
The couple established their home in Beat 4 of Newton County and began building a family together. The 1920 census records Everliner and Easmond living in the Lawrence community with six-year-old Waddie Walker and infant James Evans.
As Waddie grew up within the Evans household, he eventually became known by the Evans surname, reflecting the family structure in which he was raised.
Over the following years, Everliner and Easmond expanded their family to include:
- James Evans
- Lorena Evans
- Josephus Evans
- Marvin Evans
- Richard Evans
- Lyda Bell Evans
- Florence Evans
- Oscar Evans
- Roberta Evans
- Easmond Evans, Jr.
Like many rural wives and mothers, Everliner balanced the responsibilities of homemaking with the physical demands of farm labor. Census records consistently describe her as an unpaid family worker, reflecting the critical but often overlooked contributions of women to family farming operations.
Life on the Family Farm
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Everliner and Easmond worked to support their growing family through agriculture.
The family lived in the Lawrence area, where farming remained the primary source of income. Life required long hours of labor, cooperation among family members, and careful management of limited resources. Despite these challenges, the Evans household grew into a large and thriving family network.
The Great Migration
Sometime between 1935 and 1940, Everliner and her family joined the Great Migration, becoming part of the historic movement that carried millions of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities.
Leaving behind the fields and country roads of Newton County, the Evans family relocated to Chicago, Illinois, seeking greater economic opportunity and a better future for their children.
The move represented a major transition. For generations, their families had lived in rural Mississippi. Chicago offered industrial employment, expanded educational opportunities, and a growing African American community built by migrants from throughout the South.
Building a Life in Chicago
By 1940, Everliner and Easmond were renting a home at 5244 South State Street on Chicago’s South Side.
The household included numerous children ranging from young adults to toddlers, creating a lively multigenerational home. While Easmond worked outside the home, Everliner remained the center of family life, managing the household and caring for her children.
By 1950, the family had relocated to 5955 South Ada Street. Everliner, then fifty-six years old, continued to maintain a household that included adult children, younger children, and grandchildren.
Although she had left Mississippi behind geographically, she carried with her the values and traditions that had shaped her life in Newton County.
Widowhood and Community Leadership
In 1955, Everliner experienced the loss of her husband, Easmond Evans, after many years of marriage.
Rather than withdrawing from public life, she remained active within her neighborhood and community. In 1958, she was elected chaplain of the 59th and Ada Street Block Improvement Club, a civic organization dedicated to neighborhood improvement and community engagement.
Her daughter, Lyda Bell Evans, served alongside her as recording secretary, demonstrating the family’s commitment to service and leadership.
Family Pride and Community Connections
Everliner took pride in the accomplishments of her children and grandchildren.
One notable example was her youngest son, PFC Easmond Evans, Jr., who served in the United States Army at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he worked as a clerk typist in Headquarters Company.
Despite decades in Chicago, Everliner never forgot her Mississippi roots. In May 1969, she attended a Whitehead family reunion in Chicago that brought together relatives from Newton County and Illinois. The gathering reflected the enduring family ties maintained by those who had migrated north while remaining connected to their Southern heritage.
Death and Burial
Everliner Collier Evans passed away on December 12, 1977, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of eighty-three.
She was laid to rest at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Cook County, Illinois, a historic burial ground associated with many African American families who participated in the Great Migration.
Legacy
Everliner Collier Evans lived through extraordinary change. Born into the rural world of nineteenth-century Mississippi, she witnessed the rise of Jim Crow, the Great Migration, two World Wars, and the Civil Rights Movement.
She was a daughter of Newton County, a farm worker, a wife, a mother, a widow, a community leader, and a matriarch whose family spanned both Mississippi and Illinois.
Her story reflects the broader experience of countless African American women who carried their families through migration, economic hardship, and social change while preserving the values of faith, family, and perseverance.
From the farms of Lawrence to the neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side, Everliner Collier Evans left a legacy of resilience, community service, and devotion to family that continues to be remembered by her descendants today.
Why This Matters
Everliner’s life illustrates both the complexity of family history and the transformative impact of the Great Migration. Her story bridges two worlds—the agricultural communities of rural Mississippi and the growing Black neighborhoods of urban Chicago—while demonstrating how family connections, community leadership, and perseverance endured across generations and geographic boundaries.
Resting Place
Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Cook County, Illinois
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1900 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, Enumeration District 86, household of Patrick Collier, listing Evalina Collier as daughter.
- 1910 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, Enumeration District 108, household of Patrick Collier, listing Evelina Collier as a farm laborer and student.
- Laurel, Mississippi City Directory, 1912–1913 (Laurel, MS: Price Directory Co., 1913), 194, listing “Walker Boyd (Evalina), laborer, h. cor. Chantilly and Amaranth.”
- 1920 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, Enumeration District 98, household of Easmond Evans, listing Evalina Evans, Waddie Walker, and James Evans.
- 1930 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, Enumeration District 50-3, household of Easmond Evans, listing Everliner Evans and children James, Lorena, Josephus, Marvin, Richard, Lela Bell, and Florence.
- 1940 U.S. Census, Cook County, Illinois, Chicago, Enumeration District 103-1905, household of Easmond Evans, 5244 South State Street.
- 1950 U.S. Census, Cook County, Illinois, Chicago, Enumeration District 103-3597, household of Easmond Evans, 5955 South Ada Street.
- “59th and Ada Street Block Improvement Club Elects Officers,” The Chicago Defender (Chicago, Illinois), June 7, 1958, naming Everliner Evans as chaplain and Lyda Bell Evans as recording secretary.
- “PFC Easmond Evans, Jr. Serving at Fort Benning,” family clipping and military announcement, Fort Benning, Georgia, documenting the military service of her youngest son.
- Whitehead Family Reunion photograph and accompanying family records, Chicago, Illinois, May 30, 1969, identifying Everliner Evans among attendees from the Newton County, Mississippi family network.
- Illinois Death Index, Everliner Collier Evans, died December 12, 1977, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
- Burr Oak Cemetery burial records, Alsip, Cook County, Illinois, for Everliner Collier Evans (1894–1977).
- Optional Genealogical Note
- Later census records and family records indicate that Waddie Walker, son of Boyd Walker and Everliner Collier Walker, was raised in the household of Easmond Evans and subsequently appeared in records under the Evans surname.
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