TheFluMaster
Resident
Arizona woman's life reflects state's own determination
John Faherty
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 11, 2007 12:00 AM
LaVona Evans is exactly as old as our state. And she is just as tough and equally prolific.
She was born LaVona Jones on Feb. 14, 1912, the day Arizona stopped being a territory and became the 48th state of the union.
Her name reflects a time and place in history. "LaV" is for Valentine's Day, on which she was born. "Ona," of course, comes from Arizona.
Eleven infants were issued birth certificates on that day, and certainly other babies were born.
So LaVona's story is not the Arizona story; it is simply an Arizona story.
But her life does a good job reflecting the state's history through her perseverance, can-do attitude and love of the region.
When she turns 95 on Wednesday, one of the things she will be thankful for is her strong constitution.
She is remarkably healthy. She lives alone, is sharp as a tack and has a firm handshake.
And she is personally responsible for quite a bit of the state's remarkable population growth.
She is the mother of five, grandmother of 35, great-grandmother of 87 and the great-great-grandmother of seven.
She has experienced countless joys and an occasional broken heart. There were times when she experienced brutal poverty and others when she taught the Queen of Tonga how to quilt.
She is old enough to remember that when people heard a plane, they would run outside to look up.
In a life during which she experienced many twists of fate, one thing no longer flusters her.
"I'm never surprised when one of the girls tells me she's pregnant," Evans said from her home in Thatcher, in eastern Arizona.
Like everyone who reaches old age, she has seen her share of life and death. She has buried three husbands but looks back on her life as filled with blessings.
She was born in Thatcher, the fourth of five children of Daniel and Estela Jones. Her first hardship came at age 5, when her mother died from a brain tumor.
She and her baby brother went to live with her grandparents in Mesa. "I remember it distinctly. They were very good to us," Evans said. "Mesa was still country then."
A witness to history
In this house she received an insider's look at the first years of the state's history.
Her grandfather was Daniel P. Jones, a pioneer resident of the Lehi area of Mesa. He was also a state lawmaker and served as speaker of the House from 1923 to 1925.
He wrote bills that established the public school system under Arizona's new constitution, according to the Arizona State Library.
His father was Daniel Webster Jones, the man sent by Brigham Young to Arizona to colonize the area.
A vivid memory of that time was witnessing the devastation caused by a flu pandemic.
"It took a lot of people. There were wagons going up the street with those wood boxes. That was 1918."
When she was 6 or 7 years old, she moved back with her father, his second wife, and her older brothers. Her baby brother stayed with his grandparents in Mesa.
LaVona's father was an educator who moved frequently during his life. The next years saw her moving from Mesa to Chandler to Goodyear to Tucson.
In 1927, at the age of 15, she left the state for the first time as the family moved to Colorado, where her father was charged with starting a school in Red Mesa.
"My father was a good man. He was strict. He wouldn't let you look at any boy. But loving."
Three years later she moved back to Tucson to live with an older brother.
Early heartbreak
She married Lavar Price and had her first baby, a son named Norman.
It was while she was at the hospital, "they called it a stork's nest then," having her second baby that her heart was broken.
Lavar did not come to visit her at the hospital, and she knew something was wrong.
"He was too good of a man, too good of a husband, to not come to the hospital," LaVona said.
After two days of pleading, her doctor released her early from the hospital and she made it home just in time to see her husband being carried out.
"He just had time to meet his baby girl, but that was it."
Days later Lavar Price was dead from a ruptured appendix.
During a series of interviews, it was only when describing the death of her first husband that LaVona lost her composure.
"It did break my heart. It did not last long enough."
LaVona, with a newborn baby, was not allowed to attend her husband's funeral.
"They let me sit in a chair by the window, and I watched it all."
She was now a young mother with two small children at the depths of the Great Depression.
"I had $10 in Indian Head pennies. Of course that was 1933."
As tough as the times, she made do.
"I made sure I fed my son, and I ate all the rest. I nursed my daughter for her first 18 months. I figured that was getting two for one."
That daughter, LaVana Parke, now 73, lives near her mother in Thatcher. She says that story speaks to her mother's remarkable strength.
"There is nothing she could not do. There is nothing she cannot do. She has always made us so proud."
A new start
LaVona got a job working for the McClelland family in Tucson. The McClellands were just starting their business, Shamrock Dairy, which became a large employer in the state.
"I guess they had a Mormon girl who was their housekeeper and they wanted another one to help with the children."
It was while working for the McClellands that she met Quinton Hawkins. "There was a young man who they hired. He had just graduated from the U of A, and we would say hello."
In 1936, Hawkins became her second husband and the father of her next three children.
They stayed married and in Tucson until Hawkins died of lung cancer in 1970.
"He was a good man. Very honest. Everybody at the dairy thought a lot of him. And my brothers liked him."
Fit for a queen
In 1974, at the age of 62, LaVona married her third husband, Junius Evans.
"He was a very adventurous man," LaVona said.
They moved to Redington, on the eastern slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
"It was way out. There was no phone when I lived there. You needed well water. You had to split wood."
That sense of adventure, combined with their Mormon faith, led the couple to a working mission in Tonga.
"He was a well driller. We went to Tonga and drilled 52 wells in two years."
It was in Tonga that Evans had the experience of spending many afternoons with the Queen of Tonga.
"She wanted to learn how to quilt. She was a very nice woman, and she spoke English very well," Evans said. "I went to the palace all the time because she wanted her mother to learn how to quilt as well."
After two years in Tonga, the couple returned to Redington in 1982.
In 1988, after her husband's death, LaVona moved back to the one place where she knew there would be family, her hometown of Thatcher.
"It's so great for her to be here," Holly Brown, 29, said of her grandmother, while holding her daughter Lacie. "She loves the kids, and the kids love her. We all do."
Now LaVona passes her days painting and quilting, cooking for guests and spending time with family.
"I've had some hard times. I've had some good times. But there is plenty to do. Life is good."
Reach the reporter at (602) 444-4803 or at john .faherty@arizonarepublic.com
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0211Statehood.html#
John Faherty
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 11, 2007 12:00 AM
LaVona Evans is exactly as old as our state. And she is just as tough and equally prolific.
She was born LaVona Jones on Feb. 14, 1912, the day Arizona stopped being a territory and became the 48th state of the union.
Her name reflects a time and place in history. "LaV" is for Valentine's Day, on which she was born. "Ona," of course, comes from Arizona.
Eleven infants were issued birth certificates on that day, and certainly other babies were born.
So LaVona's story is not the Arizona story; it is simply an Arizona story.
But her life does a good job reflecting the state's history through her perseverance, can-do attitude and love of the region.
When she turns 95 on Wednesday, one of the things she will be thankful for is her strong constitution.
She is remarkably healthy. She lives alone, is sharp as a tack and has a firm handshake.
And she is personally responsible for quite a bit of the state's remarkable population growth.
She is the mother of five, grandmother of 35, great-grandmother of 87 and the great-great-grandmother of seven.
She has experienced countless joys and an occasional broken heart. There were times when she experienced brutal poverty and others when she taught the Queen of Tonga how to quilt.
She is old enough to remember that when people heard a plane, they would run outside to look up.
In a life during which she experienced many twists of fate, one thing no longer flusters her.
"I'm never surprised when one of the girls tells me she's pregnant," Evans said from her home in Thatcher, in eastern Arizona.
Like everyone who reaches old age, she has seen her share of life and death. She has buried three husbands but looks back on her life as filled with blessings.
She was born in Thatcher, the fourth of five children of Daniel and Estela Jones. Her first hardship came at age 5, when her mother died from a brain tumor.
She and her baby brother went to live with her grandparents in Mesa. "I remember it distinctly. They were very good to us," Evans said. "Mesa was still country then."
A witness to history
In this house she received an insider's look at the first years of the state's history.
Her grandfather was Daniel P. Jones, a pioneer resident of the Lehi area of Mesa. He was also a state lawmaker and served as speaker of the House from 1923 to 1925.
He wrote bills that established the public school system under Arizona's new constitution, according to the Arizona State Library.
His father was Daniel Webster Jones, the man sent by Brigham Young to Arizona to colonize the area.
A vivid memory of that time was witnessing the devastation caused by a flu pandemic.
"It took a lot of people. There were wagons going up the street with those wood boxes. That was 1918."
When she was 6 or 7 years old, she moved back with her father, his second wife, and her older brothers. Her baby brother stayed with his grandparents in Mesa.
LaVona's father was an educator who moved frequently during his life. The next years saw her moving from Mesa to Chandler to Goodyear to Tucson.
In 1927, at the age of 15, she left the state for the first time as the family moved to Colorado, where her father was charged with starting a school in Red Mesa.
"My father was a good man. He was strict. He wouldn't let you look at any boy. But loving."
Three years later she moved back to Tucson to live with an older brother.
Early heartbreak
She married Lavar Price and had her first baby, a son named Norman.
It was while she was at the hospital, "they called it a stork's nest then," having her second baby that her heart was broken.
Lavar did not come to visit her at the hospital, and she knew something was wrong.
"He was too good of a man, too good of a husband, to not come to the hospital," LaVona said.
After two days of pleading, her doctor released her early from the hospital and she made it home just in time to see her husband being carried out.
"He just had time to meet his baby girl, but that was it."
Days later Lavar Price was dead from a ruptured appendix.
During a series of interviews, it was only when describing the death of her first husband that LaVona lost her composure.
"It did break my heart. It did not last long enough."
LaVona, with a newborn baby, was not allowed to attend her husband's funeral.
"They let me sit in a chair by the window, and I watched it all."
She was now a young mother with two small children at the depths of the Great Depression.
"I had $10 in Indian Head pennies. Of course that was 1933."
As tough as the times, she made do.
"I made sure I fed my son, and I ate all the rest. I nursed my daughter for her first 18 months. I figured that was getting two for one."
That daughter, LaVana Parke, now 73, lives near her mother in Thatcher. She says that story speaks to her mother's remarkable strength.
"There is nothing she could not do. There is nothing she cannot do. She has always made us so proud."
A new start
LaVona got a job working for the McClelland family in Tucson. The McClellands were just starting their business, Shamrock Dairy, which became a large employer in the state.
"I guess they had a Mormon girl who was their housekeeper and they wanted another one to help with the children."
It was while working for the McClellands that she met Quinton Hawkins. "There was a young man who they hired. He had just graduated from the U of A, and we would say hello."
In 1936, Hawkins became her second husband and the father of her next three children.
They stayed married and in Tucson until Hawkins died of lung cancer in 1970.
"He was a good man. Very honest. Everybody at the dairy thought a lot of him. And my brothers liked him."
Fit for a queen
In 1974, at the age of 62, LaVona married her third husband, Junius Evans.
"He was a very adventurous man," LaVona said.
They moved to Redington, on the eastern slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
"It was way out. There was no phone when I lived there. You needed well water. You had to split wood."
That sense of adventure, combined with their Mormon faith, led the couple to a working mission in Tonga.
"He was a well driller. We went to Tonga and drilled 52 wells in two years."
It was in Tonga that Evans had the experience of spending many afternoons with the Queen of Tonga.
"She wanted to learn how to quilt. She was a very nice woman, and she spoke English very well," Evans said. "I went to the palace all the time because she wanted her mother to learn how to quilt as well."
After two years in Tonga, the couple returned to Redington in 1982.
In 1988, after her husband's death, LaVona moved back to the one place where she knew there would be family, her hometown of Thatcher.
"It's so great for her to be here," Holly Brown, 29, said of her grandmother, while holding her daughter Lacie. "She loves the kids, and the kids love her. We all do."
Now LaVona passes her days painting and quilting, cooking for guests and spending time with family.
"I've had some hard times. I've had some good times. But there is plenty to do. Life is good."
Reach the reporter at (602) 444-4803 or at john .faherty@arizonarepublic.com
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0211Statehood.html#