1936 – 2021
Patty Evans was sweet, cheerful, and kind to her family, friends and neighbors. During her retirement years she and her brothers Ken and Alan Evans lived in an historic old house at 544 Tucker Street in Healdsburg. Together they created a beautiful back yard flower garden and goldfish pond. They especially enjoyed Halloween when they could greet trick or treaters on the playfully decorated front porch.
Patty was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on July 22, 1936, and grew up in nearby Cranford, a suburb of New York City. She was the youngest daughter of Christine and George Evans. Her four older siblings included sister Janis, and brothers Alan, John and Landis.
In 1952, Patty went off for three years to Northfield School for Girls, a private prep school of 500 students in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. She was active in sports (particularly tennis and soccer) plus student and community outreach activities (including Girl Scout leader and Sunday school teacher). In her senior year she was elected Student Officer.
At Pembroke College in Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island), she majored in Art and English. She was elected President of her Freshman dorm and a member of the Student Court.
After college Patty joined Lever Brothers advertising in Midtown Manhattan and lived in Greenwich Village with three college girlfriends. Night life in “The Village” meant poetry readings at coffee houses, cool “modern jazz” by the likes of Dave Brubeck, or listening to folk singers like Bob Dylan.
For more than ten years Patty worked at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York City where she was appointed a Fellowship Assistant, responsible for grants related to graduate research and study at top U.S. universities in such fields as medicine, agriculture, chemistry, sociology, and the arts.
In 1967 Patty moved to Santa Monica, California, and spent five years as Administrative Assistant in the graduate research Institute of Ethnomusicology at the University of California in Los Angeles. Master musicians from around the world came to teach and perform at UCLA. Patty contributed her artistic talents to producing posters, props and programs for music festivals, as well as helping with set design and costumes, and met Ravi Shankar, the celebrated sitar virtuoso from India.
Through the 1980s Patty worked at Pacific Rim Business Digest, a family publishing venture with her brothers Alan and Ken and nephew Randy.
In 1992 Patty and her brothers left Santa Monica to settle in Healdsburg near Alan’s son, Christopher, and family. For the next seven years Patty was employed by Max Machinery, Inc., In 1999 she retired to relax and enjoy life on Tucker Street, chatting with neighbors. Each Memorial Day, she got to watch participants of the FFA Parade gather from her living room window.
In 2017 Patty moved to Las Vegas to be near her nieces McCall Strehlow and Lacey Romano. She passed on in April, 2021. Patty will be missed by all who knew and loved her.
