By Staff
WINTERVILLE — Mr. James Alexander Evans, Jr., 91, died on the morning of February 3, 2009.
The funeral service will be conducted Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the Wilkerson Funeral Chapel. Burial will follow in Winterville Cemetery.
Mr. Evans was a lifelong resident of Winterville. He graduated from Winterville High School in 1934 where he starred in basketball and baseball. He attended East Carolina Teachers College in Greenville. Mr. Evans served in the United States Navy in 1937 and 1938 until he received a medical discharge. He worked in the restaurant business with his brother Bert in Hollywood, California for one year. In 1939 he returned to Winterville to join his brother Leon in operating the Dixie Queen Restaurant which the Evans brothers began in 1931. He retired from the Dixie Queen in 1972.
Mr. Evans devoted his life to his family, always putting them ahead of himself. He was an avid sports fan. While working in California, he saw Ted Williams play baseball in San Diego in Williams’s only minor league season and saw Jackie Robinson play a basketball game for UCLA. He attended both Duke University’s Rose Bowl football games, one played in Pasadena in 1939 and the other played in Durham in 1942. From 1984 until 2002, he and his son attended several major league baseball games together, attending games in fourteen different major league stadiums throughout the country. He was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the Winterville Ruritan Club, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Winterville Historical and Arts Society, where he served on the board of Directors. He was a generous contributor to the restoration of the Ange House and its museum, located in Winterville.
Mr. Evans was preceded in death by his parents, James Alexander Evans and Annie Smith Evans, older brothers, Leon and Bert, and infant sister, Rosa Lee Evans.
He is survived by his: wife of 65 years, LaRue M. Evans; son, DeLyle M. Evans and wife, Louise Bost Evans; and granddaughter, Ashley Bost Evans.
The family will receive friends Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Wilkerson Funeral Home, and other times at the home. Friends are welcome to call the home 756-1420.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the LaRue M. Evans Endowment Fund for the Winterville Historical and Arts Society Museum, PO Box 2014, Winterville, NC 28590.
Online condolences at www.wilkersonfuneralhome.com.
Paid Obituary