Evans_Maxalyn W._ 18 May 1912

Maxalyn W. Evans

San Jose, California – Maxalyn W. Evans died peacefully Wednesday, March 23, 1994, in San Jose, California, after an extended illness. She was born May 18, 1912, in Aberdeen, Idaho, to Zelda D. and Tobias Wedel. She attended school in Aberdeen and college at the Idaho Southern University. In 1932 she entered nurses training at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon, and obtained the degree of RN in 1935. She was the superintendent of the Beck Hospital in Blackfoot, Idaho, and in the fall of 1938 she was hired by Orson H. Mabey, Sr., as the Superintendent of the “new” hospital in Malad, Idaho.

While living in Malad, she met and later married D.L. Evans III on May 26, 1940. He was killed in an automobile accident in February, 1941, six months before their daughter, Maxalyn DeLell Evans was born. She and DeLell lived with Mr. and Mrs. D.L. Evans Jr., until 1942 when she went to Hunt, Idaho, to set up and serve as the administrator of the hospital in a Japanese Relocation Camp located in a desert area of Minidoka County.

In 1944 Maxalyn returned to Malad and worked in the Evans Co-op Department Store. From 1954 until 1958 she was the Superintendent of the Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church. She moved to Sunnyvale, California, in 1964 to be near her daughter, DeLell, and her granddaughter, Laura Kathryn Evans. From 1966 and 1976 she was the administrator of four Residential Care Homes in Sunnyvale and San Jose, retiring in 1976 to live with her daughter and granddaughter, where she was homemaker, nurturer, and best friend to them both.

She is survived by her loving granddaughter, Laura Evans, and daughter, Dee Evans; one brother, Steven Boyd Jackson; 3 brothers and sisters-in-law; and 13 nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be in Malad, Idaho at the First Presbyterian Church on Saturday, April 9, at 12:00 noon.