robert evans, sr.
1928-1982
Life Story
a Life Between Mississippi, Chicago, and Michigan
Early Life in Newton County, Mississippi
Robert Evans Sr. was born in Mississippi around 1928–1930, the son of Elijah “Lige” Evans and Fannie Chapman Evans. His exact birth date remains uncertain, and surviving records identify him with different middle initials, including Robert N. Evans and Robert J. Evans.
Robert grew up in Newton County, Mississippi, as part of a large African American family whose roots extended into the rural communities surrounding Lawrence and Newton. His childhood unfolded during the Great Depression, when farming, timber cutting, and other forms of agricultural labor provided livelihoods for many Black families in east-central Mississippi.
In the 1930 United States census, Robert appeared as an infant living on Main Street in Newton with his parents, Elijah and Fannie Evans. His older brothers included Fred Henry, Elijah Jr., Charlie, Juary, Huey, and Reharb Evans. His siblings also included Hattie Mae, Ruby Lee, and Sallie Mae.
By 1940, Robert was living with his family on a farm in rural Newton County. The census recorded him as thirteen years old, attending school, and having completed approximately the first grade. The difference between his reported age in 1940 and his infancy in 1930 leaves his actual birth year unresolved.
Like many African American children in rural Mississippi, Robert grew up in a society where educational opportunities were restricted by segregation and where agricultural work remained central to family life.
His later experiences would carry him far beyond the community where he was raised, but his connections to Newton County and his parents’ household remained important throughout his life.
Marriage to Bernice brown and the Beginning of a Family
According to the account preserved by his son, Robert Evans Jr., Robert married Bernice Brown in August 1946 in Newton County, Mississippi.
In his 2011 memoir, The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still, Robert Jr. used the names James and Beatrice as aliases for his father and mother. Family identification establishes that these characters represented Robert Sr. and Bernice.
The memoir reports that Bernice was fourteen years old and Robert was seventeen when they married. If those ages are accurate, Robert may have been born earlier than the date suggested by the 1930 census.
The couple had three known children:
- Helen J. Evans, born about 1947, identified as Mary Jane in the memoir.
- Robert Evans Jr. (1949–2022), identified as James Jr. in the memoir, which gives an October 1948 birth year.
- Fannie Evans, born about September 1950, identified as Grace in the memoir.
The 1950 United States census recorded Robert as head of household on Old Raleigh Road in Newton County, living with Bernice and their two older children. Their youngest daughter, Fannie, was born later that year.
Although Robert and Bernice had established a household of their own, their marriage was approaching a period of serious difficulty.
Working in Mississippi’s Pulpwood Industry
In 1950, Robert worked cutting pulpwood in the wholesale lumber industry. The federal census reported that he had worked approximately fifty-five hours during the preceding week.
Pulpwood cutting was an important occupation in east-central Mississippi, where forests supplied timber for paper production and other wood-processing industries. The work involved cutting trees, trimming logs, and preparing wood for transportation to mills or collection yards.
For many African American men in Newton County, timber and agricultural labor offered limited financial security despite long hours and physically demanding conditions.
Robert’s occupation placed him within this working-class economy. His employment also helps explain why later episodes in his son’s memoir repeatedly involved timber cutting, hauling wood, and efforts to earn money from the sale of pulpwood.
Although the census documents Robert’s employment, it does not reveal how much he earned or whether he was able to provide consistent financial support for his family.
Migration to Chicago and the Breakdown of His Marriage
Around 1950, Robert left Mississippi for Chicago, Illinois, joining the growing movement of African Americans seeking opportunities outside the segregated South.
Several of his brothers and sisters had already established connections in Northern cities, particularly Chicago and Detroit. Robert’s migration followed the broader geographic movement of the Evans family.
According to his son’s memoir, Robert left Mississippi with the intention of finding construction work in Chicago and eventually sending for Bernice and their children.
However, the plan did not unfold as anticipated.
Robert Jr. recorded his mother’s account that Robert spent time drinking and socializing while living with his sister in Chicago. Approximately six months after leaving Mississippi, he returned without the financial resources Bernice had expected. He remained in Mississippi for a short period before returning north.
Bernice and the children were left facing severe financial hardship.
In the memoir, Bernice described a winter day in 1950 when she had no wood to heat the house or prepare food. She recalled cutting apart her kitchen table to obtain enough firewood to cook for her children.
She also described walking long distances to pick cotton, taking her small children into the fields because she had no alternative childcare arrangements. On some occasions, she placed the youngest children on a blanket near the cotton rows while she worked.
Bernice remembered receiving only four dollars for a day’s labor and wondering whether she would ever escape those conditions.
These recollections reveal the difficult circumstances she faced as a young mother in rural Mississippi.
Although Robert’s departure was part of the Great Migration, his family’s experience demonstrates that migration did not always produce immediate economic security. In some households, it also brought separation, uncertainty, and additional hardship for those who remained behind.
Elijah and Fannie Evans Become Caregivers
In 1951, Bernice’s mother came from Chicago to assist her daughter and grandchildren in moving north.
According to Robert Jr.’s memoir, Bernice initially intended to take all three children with her.
However, Robert’s father, Elijah “Lige” Evans, intervened.
Elijah and his wife, Fannie Chapman Evans, lived approximately one hundred yards from Bernice’s home. Concerned that Bernice did not yet have secure employment or housing in Chicago, Elijah offered to care for the two older children until she became established.
He assured Bernice that the children would be provided for, declaring:
“If I eat, they eat.”
Bernice agreed to leave Helen and Robert Jr. with their paternal grandparents while taking the youngest child, Fannie, to Chicago.
The decision was difficult for Bernice, but it allowed her to seek employment and establish a home without immediately having to provide for all three children in an unfamiliar city.
For Helen and Robert Jr., Elijah and Fannie became the central figures of their childhood.
Robert Jr. later explained that he was so young when the separation occurred that he had little memory of his mother. He knew his grandparents as the adults who provided his daily care, discipline, and security.
Their home became the place where the children experienced the rhythms of rural Mississippi life—farming, school, family responsibilities, and the close relationships that sustained the Evans household.
The arrangement demonstrates the importance of extended family networks among African Americans during the Great Migration. Grandparents often provided continuity and stability while younger family members pursued opportunities elsewhere.
Robert’s Life in Chicago and Detroit
While Bernice worked toward establishing herself in Chicago, Robert continued living separately from her.
According to the memoir, Bernice initially stayed with her mother, while Robert lived with his sister. Although the couple occasionally saw one another, they did not reconcile.
At one point, Robert visited the household where Bernice’s mother was caring for their youngest daughter, Fannie. He asked to take the child to a store but did not return her as expected.
Bernice subsequently learned that Robert had taken Fannie to Detroit, Michigan.
Robert Jr. reported that his father kept Fannie in Detroit for approximately one year. In later conversations, Robert described caring for the little girl, dressing her carefully, and tending to her hair.
The episode was distressing for Bernice, who had not expected her daughter to be taken away. Yet the memoir also preserves Robert’s own account of providing care for Fannie during their time together.
Eventually, Robert arranged for Fannie to return to Mississippi, where she joined Helen and Robert Jr. at their grandparents’ home.
The three children were reunited, although their parents continued living elsewhere.
Robert’s time in Detroit also establishes an important connection to Michigan, where he would eventually spend his final years.
Visits to Mississippi and a Difficult Relationship with His Children
Although Robert lived away from Newton County for extended periods, he continued making visits to Mississippi.
By the latter 1950s, he was reportedly working along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
His son recalled one particularly painful incident involving pulpwood that he and his older sister Helen had cut on their grandparents’ property.
During the winter of his ninth year, Robert Jr. and Helen decided to earn money by cutting wood. Their grandfather provided a measuring stick and a saw, and the children spent afternoons after school cutting and preparing pulpwood.
When Robert Sr. returned from the Gulf Coast, the children asked him to haul their wood to a buyer.
He agreed.
According to Robert Jr.’s recollection, his father loaded the wood onto his grandfather’s truck and left to sell it. The children waited for him to return with their earnings.
Robert did not return when expected.
When he eventually came back, Robert Jr. recalled that his father had been drinking. He gave Helen and Robert Jr. fifty cents each.
The children later learned from an aunt that the wood had reportedly sold for three dollars and fifty cents.
Robert Jr. remembered being deeply hurt by the incident. He and his siblings had hoped to use their earnings to purchase food, and he struggled to understand his father’s actions.
The memoir also describes Elijah Evans confronting his son about the money.
This episode provides a rare firsthand account of the relationship between Robert Sr. and his children. It suggests that his drinking and financial decisions sometimes caused pain within the family.
At the same time, a historical biography must distinguish between Robert Jr.’s remembered experiences and a complete assessment of his father’s character. The memoir records particular events from a son’s perspective; it does not document every aspect of Robert Sr.’s adult life.
Bernice Fulfills Her Promise: The Children Leave Mississippi in 1957
For several years, Helen, Robert Jr., and Fannie remained in the care of Elijah and Fannie Chapman Evans.
Throughout this period, Bernice continued working toward the goal of bringing her children to Chicago.
In 1957, she fulfilled that promise.
Robert Jr. recalled receiving a letter and a large box of clothing from his mother announcing that she was coming to take the children north.
The children were excited by the prospect of rejoining Bernice and experiencing a different life.
Their grandfather, however, was saddened by their departure.
Elijah had helped raise the children during some of their most formative years. Their leaving meant the end of a period in which his household had served as their principal home.
Bernice arrived during heavy rain, and the children departed along muddy Mississippi roads.
Their journey north included stops in Forest, Mississippi, and the Mississippi Delta, where they visited relatives and encountered travel difficulties.
After approximately a week, they reached Chicago.
The family settled at 4040 South Ellis Avenue, where Bernice was working and attending school to become a beautician.
For Robert Jr., the transition was remarkable. He remembered seeing snow, living in a heated apartment, and attending a racially integrated school.
The move also reunited him with his mother after years of separation.
Although Robert Sr. was not part of this household, his children’s relocation marked an important turning point in the family history.
Their lives would now unfold primarily in Chicago rather than the rural Mississippi community where they had been raised.
Later Marriages and Connections to Michigan and the Gulf Coast
Robert’s later marital history remains incompletely documented.
According to family recollection, he married two additional women, identified as Della and Theola.
One family member recalled that Della was from Michigan. This information is consistent with Robert’s known presence in Detroit and his later residence in Flint, although it does not establish the date or location of their marriage.
The identity of Theola remains uncertain.
An obituary for a Mrs. Theola Evans from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, with connections to Illinois, has been identified as a possible match. However, the obituary does not name her husband, and no evidence presently establishes that she was married to Robert Evans Sr.
Robert Jr.’s memoir confirms that his father maintained connections to the Gulf Coast during the 1950s, but this alone cannot establish a relationship with the woman named in the obituary.
Additional marriage records, city directories, death certificates, and family testimony may eventually clarify Robert’s later relationships.
Final Years in Flint, Michigan
By the early 1980s, Robert was living in Flint, Genesee County, Michigan.
His son, Robert Evans Jr., later documented his father’s death and funeral in The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still.
Robert Jr. recalled that in April 1981 he began working for the La-Z-Boy furniture company in Newton, Mississippi. The following year, in March 1982, he married a woman named Ruby.
That same year, his father died.
The memoir does not identify the exact date or cause of Robert Sr.’s death, but it establishes that he was residing in Flint at the time.
A separate death record for a Robert J. Evans reports a death in May 1982 in Flint, Michigan. Although the year and location agree with the memoir, the difference in middle initials remains unresolved. The record is a probable match but has not been conclusively identified as belonging to Robert Evans Sr.
Death, Funeral, and Return to Mississippi (1982)
Following Robert’s death in 1982, his family began making arrangements to return his remains to Mississippi.
According to Robert Jr.’s memoir, Bernice, their daughters Helen and Fannie, and a cousin identified as Jerry traveled to Flint, Michigan.
Robert’s body was prepared in Michigan, where a one-day open-casket viewing was held for friends and acquaintances who had known him during his years there.
Afterward, his remains were transported by airplane to Jackson, Mississippi.
Newton Funeral Home received Robert’s body at the Jackson airport and transported it to a funeral home in the city for the final arrangements.
Robert Jr. assumed responsibility for the funeral expenses and arrangements in Mississippi.
He recalled being quoted approximately $550 for funeral services and an additional $125 to dig the grave. Rather than paying the additional charge, he arranged for several local men to prepare the burial site.
The funeral brought together relatives from Chicago and Mississippi. Robert Jr. remembered the attendance of numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members who gathered to pay their respects.
The gathering reflected the geographic reach of the Evans family, whose members had established homes across Mississippi and the Midwest.
Although Robert had spent much of his adult life moving between Southern and Northern communities, his remains were returned to Mississippi for burial.
The precise cemetery and burial date have not yet been established.
Legacy: Migration, Family Separation, and the Memories of a Son
Robert Evans Sr.’s life reflects both the opportunities and difficulties experienced by African American families during the Great Migration.
Born into a large family in Newton County, he worked in Mississippi’s timber industry before joining relatives and other migrants who sought new opportunities in Northern cities.
His life eventually connected Mississippi, Chicago, Detroit, Flint, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Yet the most detailed surviving account of his life comes not from an official record but from the memories of his son.
In The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still, Robert Evans Jr. preserved experiences that might otherwise have disappeared from the family’s history. His account reveals the hardships Bernice faced, the sacrifices made by Elijah and Fannie Evans, and the emotional complexity of growing up with parents who lived apart.
It also preserves difficult memories of his father, including incidents involving drinking, money, and family separation.
Those experiences should not be ignored or softened beyond recognition. They were part of the life Robert Jr. remembered and chose to document.
At the same time, Robert Sr. was more than the difficult episodes recorded in his son’s memoir. He was a son, brother, husband, father, laborer, and migrant whose life unfolded across several communities during a period of profound social and economic change.
His story also demonstrates the importance of grandparents in sustaining African American families. When Robert and Bernice could no longer maintain their household together, Elijah and Fannie Evans helped provide a home for their grandchildren.
The children eventually joined their mother in Chicago, but the years they spent in Mississippi remained central to their identities.
There is also a meaningful final chapter to Robert’s relationship with his son.
Despite the painful childhood experiences Robert Jr. described, he personally assumed responsibility for his father’s funeral arrangements and burial in Mississippi.
His memoir records that responsibility without requiring us to assume that every hurt from the past had been resolved.
Through his son’s published account, Robert Evans Sr.’s life—and the larger story of the Evans family—has been preserved with unusual intimacy.
His biography is therefore not simply the story of a man who left Mississippi. It is also a record of family separation, parental responsibility, intergenerational care, hardship, and the lasting influence of childhood memories.
Sources and Footnotes
- 1930 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Main Street, Elijah and Fannie Evans household.
- 1940 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Elijah and Fannie Evans household.
- 1950 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Old Raleigh Road, Robert and Bernice Evans household.
- Robert Evans Jr., The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still (2011), 2–3. The memoir uses aliases for Robert Sr., Bernice, and their children. Identifications are based on Evans family information.
- Evans Jr., The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still, 3 and subsequent pages, sections concerning the family’s separation, the grandparents’ care of the children, and Robert’s move to Detroit.
- Evans Jr., The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still, 15–16, sections concerning pulpwood cutting and Robert Sr.’s visit from the Gulf Coast.
- Evans Jr., The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still, 17–19, sections concerning Bernice’s return to Mississippi, the family’s journey north in 1957, and their arrival at 4040 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago.
- Evans Jr., The Tongue That Wouldn’t Keep Still, 43, account of Robert Sr.’s death in 1982, funeral preparations in Flint, and transportation of his remains to Jackson, Mississippi.
- Evans family oral history concerning Robert Sr.’s reported later marriages to Della and Theola. Informant and interview date not yet recorded.
- Reported Michigan death record for Robert J. Evans, May 1982, Flint, Genesee County, Michigan; identification probable but not conclusively established.
Resting Place
Jackson, Mississippi
Photos/Albums
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