Judy S. Evans, beloved friend of Wabash College and wife of long-time Trustee Daniel F. Evans ’43, passed away on Tuesday, January 6 at the age of 83.
She and Dan Evans met as teenagers and dated while in college — Dan at Wabash and Judy at DePauw — and the two were married more than 50 years. Dan passed away in 1996.
Judy is survived by her daughter, Julia (John) Coles, and two sons, Daniel (Marilyn) Evans and David (Marcia) Evans. She was an adoring grandmother to 10.
Calling at the Meridian Street Methodist Church (5500 N. Meridian Street, Indianapolis) will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 10 with services to follow at 3:00 p.m. Burial will be at Oak Hill Cemetery in Crawfordsville at a private ceremony.
Friends may sign a guestbook or share a memory of Judy with the family.
Her obituary, published in the Indianapolis Star, details her courtship with Dan:
"She was active in so many community, church and social service organizations both as a volunteer and in leadership that they are too numerous to mention here. She devoted herself to family each and every day and possessed a very strong sense of social justice, which encompassed everything she did throughout her extraordinarily meaningful life.
"The keystone of her life was family. The centerpiece was her half-century of marriage to Dan. In 1939, then teenagers, Judy and Dan met at an Indiana state speech contest at which they both were winners. At her mother's urging, Judy wrote Dan a congratulatory letter in 1941 for a contest he won. From his first response, Dan was clearly enamored with the pretty girl from Frankfort, writing, 'If you would care to, I would be interested in hearing from you,' and signing 'Sincerely yours, Dan Evans.' Four years and dozens of letters later, Dan's writing had become love letters. On January 9, 1945, Ensign Dan Evans, on board the USS Levy somewhere in the South Pacific, wrote Judy, signing off with 'Remember, I love you, oh, ever so much, Me.'
"Their falling in love is chronicled in the neatly bundled letters that Judy kept in her possession for the rest of her life."
Memorial contributions may be made to the Methodist Health Foundation in support of Hospice and Planned Parenthood of Indiana, Inc.
Her late husband, Dan, served as a Trustee of the College from 1964 to 1993 and was Vice President of the Board from 1984 to 1993. He was the College Treasurer from 1975 to 1988, and served as Acting President of the College in 1993.