October 8, 2010
Happy Birthday!
Mary Margaret Evans will celebrate her 90th birthday
![Mary Margaret Evans sits under a portrait of herself and her husband Lloyd, as she holds her First Communion dress. “I made my First Communion on June 5, 1927,” she said, adding that “for many years, the girls, [in her class] as adults, would go to Mass together on that day and then go to breakfast.” She will be celebrating her ninetieth birthday Oct. 9 with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes)](../../../files/2010/10-08/birthday-large.jpg)
Mary Margaret Evans sits under a portrait of herself and her husband Lloyd, as she holds her First Communion dress. “I made my First Communion on June 5, 1927,” she said, adding that “for many years, the girls, [in her class] as adults, would go to Mass together on that day and then go to breakfast.” She will be celebrating her ninetieth birthday Oct. 9 with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes) Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Mary Margaret Evans’ children know their mom doesn’t like to be in the spotlight, but just this once they aren’t paying attention.
Her children, all six of them, her grandchildren, all 21 of them, and her 20 great-grandchildren will be gathering together on Saturday to celebrate Mary Margaret’s ninetieth birthday — and her life.
She has always lived in the Vincennes area. It’s where her family settled when her great-grandparents arrived from Germany and France, and the entire family has always attended St. John the Baptist Church.
She grew up on a farm, living with her parents and maternal grandparents — “we had three generations in one house” — and her earliest memories include attending Midnight Mass. “The church was beautiful, but the car was so cold they put big blankets over us to go to church.”
Memories of her First Communion day in 1927 are also strong. She still has her dress, and she talks of the green leafy wreaths the girls wore in their hair. “That afternoon, we were enrolled in the scapular.”
Her childhood was lovely, and she speaks fondly of her family. Her daughter, Mary Angela, shares a memory her mother told her of falling asleep as a young child in bed with her two sisters. “They would all fall asleep holding hands, saying, ‘I’m sorry I fussed at you today.’”
Mary Margaret adds, “We had a wonderful mother. She taught us that.”
Her daughter says her mother passed that advice on to her own children. “She always had good advice.”
In 1943, Mary Margaret Brown married Lloyd Evans, and the couple had six children: Rose Ann, Kathy, John, Mark, Marty and Mary Angela.
“Those were the best days of my life,” she said. “I was a stay-at-home mom, and my husband was a good help too. It was a fun life. It was fun.”
Mary Angela remembers the bus rides home from school when the children “couldn’t think of anything else but what was going to be the treat today” remembering tasty cakes and pies and other goodies.
Her mother said, “My mother did that too. She made a lot of homemade bread, and you would smell that when you came into the house. Oh my, that was good.”
Family life changed forever in 1977 when Lloyd died. Shortly after that, the pastor at St. John’s asked Mary Margaret to be the housekeeper at the rectory.
Her response: “I couldn’t work for the priests. They were on a pedestal when I grew up. They asked me three times before I went to work for them.
“It was wonderful. All those priests were so good to me. They were like my boys.”
Mary Angela agreed. “That’s how she treated them — like her sons. She cleaned the rectory, and did the laundry and the cooking and the grocery shopping — and she kept the linens done for the church.”
Mary Margaret laughed and said, “I was younger then and I could do it. I worked there 23 years, and they were so good to me.”
“She was a wonderful cook,” her daughter says, adding, “she gets that from her mother. Grandma Brown taught her well.”
Mary Margaret says, “I had a good upbringing, a good example in every way.”
Her daughter remembers when her dad was ill. “He was sick for 16 months, and she took care of him. She has more strength than anyone I know.”
“God gives me the strength,” she replied, explaining that she tries to attend Mass two to three times a week, and that she says the rosary every day.
“I think the family that prays together stays together.”
Mary Margaret and Lloyd were members of the Christian Family Movement, and the chaplain Father Francis Schroering taught them “to bless your spouse before you go to bed, and to bless your children. Now, my kids do that. It’s because of Father Schroering that we did that.”
During the good times, and especially in the hard times, she learned to depend on her faith. “Faith. That’s what you depend on, your faith.”