juary evans
1920-1964
Life Story
Juary Evans was born on December 18, 1920, in Jasper, Mississippi, the son of Elijah Evans and Fannie Chapman Evans. His given name was not always recorded consistently. Historical records rendered it in forms such as Jurie and Jerry, but he was known within the family as Juary.
His life was relatively short—he died at only forty-three—but it encompassed considerable change. He grew up in Newton County, worked as a laborer, married and became a father, registered for the draft during World War II, and eventually left Mississippi for Detroit, where he entered the industrial workforce. His surviving records also preserve a complicated marital history that followed him from Mississippi to Michigan.
Early Life in Newton County
Although Juary was born in Jasper, Mississippi, he was raised in Newton County, where the Evans family had deep roots.
By 1930, he was living with his parents on Main Street in Newton, Mississippi, in a large household that included several of his brothers and sisters. Among them were Fred H., Elijah, Jr., Charlie, Huey, Reholbert, and Robert Evans.
Juary’s name, like those of several of his siblings, was not always captured correctly by census takers and other record keepers. He appears as Jurie or Jerry in some surviving documents. His brother Huey’s name was likewise rendered differently in historical records. Where their identities are established, their actual family names are used here rather than perpetuating those record variations.
Marriage to Maybelle Haney and the Birth of Clarence
By 1940, Juary had married Maybelle Haney and was living in Stratton, Newton County, Mississippi.
He worked as a laborer during this period, beginning his adult life within the same rural Newton County environment in which he had been raised.
Juary and Maybelle had one known child, Clarence Evans.
The surviving evidence establishes their marriage and their son, but additional research is still needed to determine exactly when Juary and Maybelle married and how and when their marriage ended.
World War II Draft Registration
On February 16, 1942, twenty-one-year-old Juary registered for the World War II Selective Service draft in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi.
His registration card provides a physical description rarely available from census records. Juary stood approximately five feet eleven inches tall, weighed 165 pounds, and was described as having dark brown skin, black hair, and brown eyes.
He was employed by Charley Steele and named his mother, Fannie Evans, as the person who would always know his address.
The draft registration establishes Juary’s participation in the wartime Selective Service system. It does not, by itself, establish that he subsequently served in the United States military.
Marriage to Molly Jordan
Several years later, Juary entered another marriage.
A marriage certificate filed in the Newton County Courthouse records the marriage of Juary Evans and Molly Jordan on September 26, 1945.
This record establishes Molly as Juary’s second known wife and provides an important anchor for reconstructing his marital history.
Their marriage, however, did not last.
Later newspaper legal notices involving Molly and Juary provide unusually direct evidence concerning what happened. According to the allegations contained in those proceedings, Juary deserted Molly, subsequently remarried, and moved out of Mississippi.
Because statements contained in a legal proceeding represent allegations or assertions made as part of a court case, they are best attributed to the legal record rather than presented as independently established facts. Nevertheless, the notices provide important evidence for understanding the breakdown of the marriage and Juary’s departure from Mississippi.
Marriage to Essie Watson and Migration to Detroit
Juary subsequently married Essie Watson and established a new life in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan.
By 1950, the federal census places Juary and Essie at 5329 Mabury Grand in Detroit. Their household included their young son, Juary Evans Jr., who had been born in 1949.
Juary and Essie had children together, although Juary Jr. is presently the one child from their marriage whose identity has been established in the available information.
Juary’s relocation placed him within the enormous twentieth-century movement of African Americans from the South to Northern industrial cities. Detroit became one of the most important destinations of that migration.
For the Evans family, however, there was no single northern destination. Some of Juary’s brothers and sisters became associated with Chicago, while Juary established himself in Detroit. Their individual journeys created an Evans family network stretching from Newton County into several northern cities.
From Mississippi Laborer to Detroit Industrial Worker
Juary’s occupation in Detroit illustrates just how much his surroundings had changed.
In Mississippi, he had been recorded as a laborer. By 1950, he was working in Detroit’s wholesale metal industry as a lead melter.
The change from rural Mississippi labor to industrial work in Detroit places Juary within one of the defining economic patterns of the Great Migration. Northern cities offered large industrial labor markets dramatically different from the agricultural economy in which many Black Mississippians had grown up.
The records establish Juary’s occupational transition, although they do not tell us precisely why he chose Detroit or how he obtained his position there. Those motivations should not be assumed without additional evidence.
Molly Jordan Evans and the 1960 Court Proceedings
Juary’s earlier marriage to Molly Jordan resurfaced in the historical record years after he had established himself in Michigan.
In November 1960, legal notices published in the Hattiesburg American concerned proceedings in the Chancery Court of Forrest County, Mississippi, styled Molly Jordan Evans v. Juary Evans.
The notices identified Juary as a nonresident and, according to the legal allegations, described the circumstances under which he had left Molly, remarried, and moved out of state.
These proceedings are particularly important because they connect the Juary Evans living in Detroit back to his earlier marriage in Mississippi and help explain a transition that the census records alone cannot reveal.
The complete chancery court file would still be valuable. It may contain testimony, dates, addresses, information concerning the marriage, and the court’s final disposition of the case.
Fatherhood and Family
At least two of Juary’s children are presently known.
His marriage to Maybelle Haney produced:
Clarence Evans, born in 1944.
His later marriage to Essie Watson produced children, including:
Juary Evans Jr., born in 1949.
Because Juary and Essie are known to have had additional children, the present family reconstruction should not be interpreted as a complete list of Juary’s descendants.
Further research into Detroit birth records, Juary’s death record, obituaries, and the records of his children may eventually allow this branch of the Evans family to be reconstructed more fully.
Death at Forty-Three
Juary Evans died in July 1964, at only forty-three years of age.
A Social Security claim was filed following his death in August 1964, providing additional documentation of the timing of his death.
His death brought to an early end a life that had crossed several very different worlds. In a little more than four decades, Juary had gone from childhood in Newton County to adulthood and fatherhood in Mississippi and ultimately to industrial employment and family life in Detroit.
His exact place of death, cause of death, and burial location remain important subjects for further research.
Legacy
Juary Evans’s story adds an important branch to the history of the children of Elijah and Fannie Chapman Evans.
He grew up alongside brothers and sisters whose lives eventually spread far beyond Newton County. While several members of the family became connected with Chicago, Juary’s path led to Detroit.
His life can be traced geographically as:
Jasper, Mississippi → Newton County, Mississippi → Detroit, Michigan
But geography tells only part of his story.
Juary married Maybelle Haney, with whom he had his son Clarence. He later married Molly Jordan, whose subsequent legal proceedings preserve evidence of a difficult chapter in his personal life. He then established another household with Essie Watson in Detroit, where they had children together, including Juary Jr.
His occupational life changed as dramatically as his family circumstances. The young Mississippi laborer became a lead melter in Detroit’s metal industry, representing in one individual life the broader shift from Southern rural labor to Northern industrial employment experienced by many African American migrants of his generation.
Juary did not live long enough to grow old alongside the brothers and sisters with whom he had shared his Newton County childhood. Yet through Clarence Evans, Juary Evans Jr., and his other children with Essie, his branch of the Evans family continued.
His biography therefore preserves more than the story of migration. It records a complicated human life—one shaped by family, marriage, fatherhood, separation, migration, industrial labor, and change during one of the most transformative periods in African American history.
Resting Place
Unknown
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1930 United States Federal Census, Newton, Newton County, Mississippi; Roll: 1161; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0001; FHL microfilm: 2340896; Household of Elijah Evans.
- 1940 United States Federal Census, Stratton, Newton County, Mississippi; Roll: m-t0627-02055; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 51-12; Household of Jerry Evans.
- 1950 United States Federal Census, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan; Roll: 1858; Sheet: 81; Enumeration District: 85-1157; Household of Juary Evans.
- U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947, Draft Registration Card for Juary Evans, Serial No. T-391, Order No. T-11,002, 16 Feb 1942, Local Board No. 1, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi.
- U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014, Entry for Juary Evans, SSN 427-28-3710, Birth: 18 Dec 1920, Death: Jul 1964.
- U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007, Entry for Juary Evans, Claim Date: 21 Aug 1964.
- Hattiesburg American, Legal Notice: Non-Resident Notice (The State of Mississippi, Forrest County, To Juary Evans, Cause No. 20,505), Published 12 Nov 1960, 19 Nov 1960, and 26 Nov 1960, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
- Hattiesburg American, Court Filings Docket: Molly Jordan Evans vs. Juary Evans, desertion, Published 3 Dec 1960, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
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