Obituary of Margaret Evans

Margaret "Maggie" Evans Margaret (Maggie) Johanna Nielsen Evans, 83, died May 24, 2009, at her home in Lacey, Washington, with her family by her side. Maggie was born on March 7, 1926, to Martin K. and Pearl Mercer Nielsen, in St. Paul, Minnesota. After earning a B. A. in English from the University of Minnesota in 1948, she began her career as a publications editor with entry level jobs, including a six-month stint in Ketchikan, Alaska, as assistant to the editor of Alaska Sportsman magazine. From the late 1940s through the early 1950s, she edited science and agriculture publications for the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and Washington State College in Pullman. While Maggie was completing work on a master’s degree in technical communication from Iowa State College, a widower, Charles D. Evans, persuaded her to marry him and become mother to his two children—Richard, just four years old and Mary, 20 months. She accepted, her colleagues presented her with a degree in motherhood cum laude, and in 1956 the new family began life together in Laurel, Maryland, where Charles flew as Flyway Biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service. A second son, Paul, was born a year later. When a position with the Fish and Wildlife Service opened in Alaska in 1961, Charles got the job partly because Maggie had earlier demonstrated her ability to live and work in Alaska. The family moved to Anchorage, where a third son, Eric, was born in 1963. As mother to four active children in the “Last Frontier,” Maggie became expert in home canning, vegetable gardening, bread baking, wild game cookery, and other essential skills. Countless visitors to the Evans home enjoyed Maggie’s gracious hospitality and famed moose stew. She inculcated a love for literature, music, and the arts in all her children, and enjoyed attending local performances and singing in the community chorus. Along with her family, Maggie enjoyed an active outdoor life, hiking, backpacking, camping, canoeing, and cross-country skiing throughout Southcentral Alaska. She spent the summer of 1962 caring for her family in a small cabin in Fort Yukon, just north of the Arctic Circle at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers. On March 27, 1964, the most powerful earthquake to hit North America struck. The Evans house stood, although everything breakable inside was smashed. Maggie used the family’s backpacking supplies to set up camp in the basement, where she kept her children, including infant Eric, safe, fed, and warm until Charles was able to return home from a meeting in Portland, Oregon. The family built a house on a foothill of the Chugach Mountains above Anchorage. The children moved up through the school system, and one by one, left for college “Outside.” Charles retired from the Fish and Wildlife Service and became a Resource Biologist for the University of Alaska. Maggie returned to her editorial work—briefly as a proofreader for the Anchorage Daily News, for two years as assistant to the editor of Alaska magazine, and finally, as technical publications editor for the Bureau of Land Management—Alaska Division of Resources. In 1979, Maggie and Charles bought Peregrine, a 27-foot Nor’Sea sailboat. Both enjoyed long weeks of summer sailing explorations around Prince William Sound. In 1982, both retired, and in 1984, they sailed Peregrine back to Washington State and moved to Lummi Island, Washington. From their island home, Maggie and Charles hiked and skied the trails of the North Cascades, and explored Puget Sound by sailboat and sea kayak. They also enjoyed time with their many islander friends, children, and grandsons Todd, Kyle, and Owen. After the Trillium Corporation bought 500 acres of land on Lummi Mountain, Maggie and Charles cofounded the Lummi Island Conservancy, a citizen group working to protect the rural character of the island. Representing the Conservancy, they worked with other groups and with government agencies to have the land purchased as a refuge for peregrine falcons. In 1998, Maggie and Charles moved to Panorama, a retirement community in Lacey, Washington. There, they became active members of a writers group, enjoyed arts events and lectures by professors from local colleges and universities, and volunteered for community groups. During their years at Panorama, Maggie and Charles also enjoyed exploring the Pacific Northwest and western United States, often as Elderhostel participants. Maggie was predeceased by Charles in 2005, and by her parents, brother Morten, and grandson Todd. She is survived by Richard and his wife Janet, and their sons Kyle and Owen of Bothell, Washington; Paul and his wife Chisako of Kyoto, Japan; Eric and his wife Loraine of Port Angeles, Washington; Mary of Kenmore, Washington; nephew Douglas R. Nielsen of Tucson, Arizona; and niece Suzanne Nielsen of St. Paul, Minnesota. To leave a condolence for the family, click on View Guestbook below: