willie maude evans larkin
1927-2006
Life Story
Early Life in Newton County
Willie Maude Evans was born in August 1927 in Newton County, Mississippi, the daughter of Thomas Evans, Jr. and Armanda “Mandy” Harris Evans. Surviving records differ slightly concerning the exact day of her birth, giving both August 12 and August 15, 1927.
Willie Maude was the eldest of the fifteen children eventually born to Thomas and Mandy Evans. She spent her earliest years in Beat 4 of Newton County, where her parents were establishing their household and raising their growing family.
In the 1930 Federal Census, four-year-old Willie was living with her parents and younger siblings Lela Mae and Robert. Robert was later known as B. Wesley “Bob” Evans, explaining why Robert disappears from later census records while B. Wesley appears in his place.
Willie’s childhood unfolded within the agricultural world of rural east-central Mississippi, where family members shared the responsibilities of maintaining a household and making a living from the land.
Growing Up in a Large Family
By 1940, Thomas and Mandy had moved their growing family to the Mogulusha area of neighboring Neshoba County. The census enumerator recorded their surname incorrectly as “Earns,” one of the spelling variations that can sometimes make families difficult to follow from one census to the next.
Willie was thirteen years old and attending school. She had completed the fourth grade and was now one of the older children in an increasingly large household.
Over the years, Thomas and Mandy became the parents of fifteen children. As one of the eldest, Willie witnessed the Evans household grow from the relatively small family recorded in 1930 into the large family that would eventually spread throughout Mississippi and beyond.
Marriage and Life in Mississippi
As an adult, Willie married into the Larkin family and became known as Willie Maude Evans Larkin.
Unlike some members of the extended Evans family who migrated to distant cities and states, Willie’s surviving records indicate that she remained rooted in east-central Mississippi.
In her later years, she lived in Union, Mississippi, a community closely connected to both Newton and Neshoba Counties and not far from the rural communities where she had spent her childhood.
Her continued residence in the area kept Willie close to the geographic center of the Evans family’s history.
Entrusted with Her Father’s Estate
One of the clearest indications of Willie’s responsibilities within the family appears late in her father’s life story.
Following the death of Thomas Evans in 1995, Willie Maude Larkin served as executrix of his estate. Legal notices associated with the estate were published in The Union Appeal as part of proceedings through the Chancery Court of Newton County.
Serving as executrix meant that Willie had been entrusted with responsibility for administering her father’s estate and carrying out the legal duties associated with settling his affairs.
For the eldest daughter of Thomas and Mandy Evans, it provides a meaningful final documentary connection between Willie and the household in which she had first appeared as a small child nearly seventy years earlier.
Death and Legacy
Willie Maude Evans Larkin passed away on August 1, 2006, at the age of seventy-eight.
Her life remained closely associated with the east-central Mississippi communities where the Evans family had established its roots. Born in Newton County, raised for part of her childhood in neighboring Neshoba County, and later residing in Union, Willie spent nearly eight decades within the region her family called home.
Her life also spanned much of the history of Thomas and Mandy Evans’s large family. She was there near its beginning, appearing as their young daughter in the 1930 census when the household contained only a few children. She watched that household grow until Thomas and Mandy had become the parents of fifteen sons and daughters.
Decades later, when her father died, it was Willie who was entrusted with serving as executrix of his estate.
That responsibility provides a fitting glimpse of her place within the family: Willie Maude Evans Larkin began life as one of the first children in Thomas and Mandy’s growing household and, nearly seventy years later, remained closely connected to the family when she was called upon to help settle her father’s final affairs.
Resting Place
Unknown
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1930 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Thomas Evans household, Beat 4. Willie Maude Evans was enumerated at approximately four years old with her parents, Thomas and Armanda “Mandy” Harris Evans, and younger siblings Leila Mae and Robert. Later family records establish Robert as B. Wesley “Bob” Evans.
- 1940 U.S. Census, Neshoba County, Mississippi, population schedule, Thomas Evans household, Mogulusha. The family was incorrectly enumerated under the surname “Earns.” Willie was recorded at age thirteen, attending school and having completed the fourth grade.
- 1930 and 1940 U.S. Censuses, Thomas Evans households, Newton and Neshoba Counties, Mississippi. Comparison of the two household records documents the growth of Thomas and Mandy Evans’s family and the variation in the identification of their son Robert/B. Wesley “Bob” Evans.
- “Armanda Evans,” The Newton Record (Newton, MS), November 13, 1991, 2; “Armanda Evans,” The Union Appeal (Union, MS), November 13, 1991, 8. Mandy’s obituary identifies Willie Maude Larkin among her surviving children. Comparison with census and later family records establishes that Thomas and Mandy were the parents of fifteen children, although their son Albert “A.C.” Evans, who was still living at the time of his mother’s death, was inadvertently omitted from the obituary.
- Social Security Administration records, Willie Maude Evans Larkin. Surviving records give differing dates of birth in August 1927, including August 12 and August 15. Because the available evidence does not yet conclusively establish which day is correct, the biography uses August 1927.
- The Union Appeal (Union, MS), September 27, 1995, 15. Legal notice concerning the estate of Thomas Evans, naming Willie Maude Larkin as executrix and documenting her responsibility for administering her father’s estate.
- Social Security Death Index, Willie Maude Larkin, died August 1, 2006, last residence Union, Mississippi. The record documents her death at age seventy-eight based on her 1927 birth year.
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