irma lee evans
1933-1943
Life Story
Early Life in Lawrence, Mississippi
Irma Lee Evans, whose name was recorded as Ormer Lee Evins on her death certificate, was born on February 9, 1933, in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Sam Evans and Lillian Evans and one of eleven children in their large rural family.¹
Her death certificate provides unusually specific information about her parents. Her father, Sam Evans, was identified as a farmer who had also been born in Lawrence, Mississippi. Her mother was recorded as Lillian Swager, born in Morton, Mississippi.¹ The spelling “Swager” represents one of several variations of Lillian’s maiden name found in surviving records.
Irma grew up alongside her brothers and sisters Mattie, Ed, Lorene, Ovetta, Annie, Freenell, Sophia, Willie, Sam Jr., and Johnny Evans. Unlike most of her siblings, however, Irma would never have the opportunity to reach adulthood.
Childhood in Newton County
The 1940 United States Census provides the principal surviving glimpse of Irma during her childhood.
At seven years old, she was living with Sam and Lillian and her siblings in the Roberts community of Newton County. She was attending school and had completed the first grade.²
Irma was growing up during the final years of the Great Depression in a household supported largely through agricultural labor. Her father and older siblings worked on the family farm, while Irma and the other younger children attended school.
The census captured what would prove to be one of the last documentary snapshots of the family with Irma among them.
A Brief Final Illness
Less than three years after the 1940 census, Irma became seriously ill.
According to her death certificate, physician Dr. Charles D. Custer attended her from January 26 through January 29, 1943. The original medical entry listed pneumonia and influenza, while a subsequent request for clarification produced the more specific diagnosis of bronchopneumonia following influenza. The physician also identified exhaustion as a contributing condition.¹
This additional medical notation is significant because it helps reconstruct the sequence of Irma’s final illness. Influenza was followed by bronchopneumonia, a serious infection of the lungs and airways. Despite medical attention, the nine-year-old child’s condition proved fatal.
Death at Nine Years Old
Irma Lee Evans died on January 29, 1943, in rural Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi. She was only nine years old, just eleven days short of her tenth birthday.¹
Her father, Sam Evans, supplied the personal information recorded on the death certificate. The document identified Irma as single, as would be expected for a child, and recorded her occupation simply as student.¹
Her death certificate also reflects the inconsistencies frequently encountered in historical records involving African American families. Her first name became “Ormer,” her surname was written “Evins,” and her mother’s maiden name appeared as “Swager.” Yet the combination of her parents’ names, birthplace, residence, age, and family information establishes that the record pertains to Irma Lee Evans, daughter of Sam and Lillian Evans.
Burial in Lawrence
Irma was buried on January 31, 1943, in Lawrence, Mississippi, two days after her death. Her funeral arrangements were handled by M. Thomas of Forest, Mississippi, according to the death certificate.¹
The certificate identifies the place of burial only as Lawrence, Mississippi. It does not name a particular cemetery. For that reason, unless another record identifies her gravesite, her burial should not be assigned to a specific church or cemetery.
Irma’s death meant that Sam and Lillian Evans experienced something no parents wished to endure—the loss of one of their children while she was still very young.
A Short Life Preserved in the Record
Because Irma Lee Evans lived only nine years, she left behind far fewer records than her brothers and sisters who survived into adulthood. There would be no marriage record, adult census household, occupational history, or obituary recounting decades of her life.
Instead, her story survives principally through two records separated by only three years: the 1940 census, which captured her as a seven-year-old schoolgirl surrounded by her family, and her 1943 death certificate, which documented the illness that ended her life.
Yet those records preserve more than dates.
They identify a little girl born in Lawrence in 1933, attending first grade by 1940 and growing up among ten brothers and sisters in Sam and Lillian Evans’s household. They also document a child who became seriously ill during the winter of 1943 and died before reaching her tenth birthday.
Although Irma’s life was much shorter than those of many of her siblings, her place within the Evans family was no less important. Her name belongs alongside those of Mattie, Ed, Lorene, Ovetta, Annie, Freenell, Sophia, Willie, Sam Jr., and John as one of the eleven children of Sam and Lillian Evans of Lawrence, Mississippi.
Resting Place
Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery
Photos/Albums
Sources
- Mississippi State Board of Health, standard certificate of death, state file no. 1067, Ormer Lee Evins, January 29, 1943, Newton County, Mississippi; supplemental medical inquiry signed March 3, 1943. The certificate records her birth as February 9, 1933, in Lawrence, Mississippi; identifies her parents as Sam Evans and Lillian Swager; and records bronchopneumonia following influenza, with exhaustion, as the cause and contributing condition of death.
- 1940 United States Federal Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Roberts community, household of Sam Evans, including Irma Evans, age 7; digital image, Ancestry.com.
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