Carolyn Cannady Evans of Magnolia Glen Senior Community in Raleigh, North Carolina died on Election Day, November 3, 2020 at the age of 93. She leaves a legacy of courage, love, perseverance, faith, and hope to all she encountered.
Carolyn Cannady Evans was known as “CC” to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She was born on April 11, 1927 in Dothan, Alabama to Grace Faircloth Cannady and Nicholas Boddie Cannady, a surgeon turned pediatrician. Although an only child, she was very close to her double-first cousin, Bill Cannady.
She was educated in local schools and went to Sweet Briar College where she majored in psychology. She grew up in a loving family and with a close group of friends, maintaining many of her childhood and college relationships throughout her life.
After graduation from Sweet Briar, she was married on June 22, 1949 to her devoted husband of 50 years, E. Hervey Evans Jr. of Laurinburg, North Carolina. They moved to Boston while Hervey finished Harvard Business School, then moved to Arlington, Virginia for two years where he worked at the Pentagon. Their first daughter, Carol, was born during this time. In 1953, they moved to Laurinburg where Hervey joined his family’s business. The rest of the children began to arrive shortly thereafter about 2 and ½ years apart; Anne, Hervey III, Grace Read, and Mary Pat. A sixth child, Elizabeth Battle Evans was born in 1964 but passed away three days after birth.
Carolyn lived a very full life in Laurinburg, raising her children and nurturing and enjoying her relationships with family, extended family and friends. She also engaged actively in service — volunteering in her church, with the Pines of Carolina Girl Scouts, with the League of Women Voters, as a trustee of the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, and in local organizations where her considerable energy, good judgment and wise counsel were invaluable.
She had a keen aesthetic sensibility and engaged in many creative endeavors - drawing portraits and creating sculptures of her husband, children, and grand-children; gardening; writing poetry; and staying up into the wee hours of the night to lovingly sew clothes for herself and the children. She loved animals and always had a variety of cats and dogs who were a key part of her family’s life, from her childhood Boston Terrier “Mac” to her most recent companion “Ami,” a friendly Bichon-Frisé.
After her children left for college, Carolyn enrolled at Pembroke University and graduated in 1998 with a master’s degree in Service and Agency Health Counseling at age 71 and became a Licensed Professional Counselor. She practiced in her field for over ten years, with experience as Executive Director for Scots for Youth (1987-96) and with the SC Department of Mental Health. After her beloved husband’s death in 2000, she moved to Reston, Virginia to be closer to three of her children, volunteering with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) in Northern Virginia as a guardian ad litem serving the youth of that region.
She remained deeply committed to improving the lives of those around her, studying the daily newspaper cover-to-cover to learn and inform her contributions to many important causes. From 2009 to 2019, she lived at Ashby Ponds Community in Ashburn, Virginia where she made dear friends and volunteered for her local hospice organization, Sweet Briar College, and Immanuel Presbyterian Church in McLean, VA.
Her children and their families were nearby and they visited regularly, going out to dinner and movies on the weekends, frequenting oyster bars, and attending church together. She took delight in attending theatre performances, concerts, going to museums and restaurants, and taking excursions to nearby historical spots and gardens and in being a friend and important support to her children there. This built strong personal friendships that became as strong as any parental bonds.
In 2019, she realized that she needed a different level of care and moved to Magnolia Glen Retirement Community in Raleigh, NC, closer to her daughters Mary Pat and Grace. They relished her close proximity, incorporating her into their lives and visiting daily. After her death her children helped her complete her final act of service, fulfilling her wish that her body be donated to the Duke University Medical School.
Writing for the Sweet Briar Alumnae magazine, Carolyn wrote: “My life has probably paralleled that of many classmates until my ‘nest emptied’ and I worked with the Scots for Youth program, got my master’s in counseling, and worked in a South Carolina mental health clinic. I found being a part of the lives of troubled children and adults when you can offer encouragement is an inspiring experience. When you fail at it, it hurts.”
“…I am seriously concerned about the world my grandchildren will inherit, especially the global corruption in leadership and social ethics. I hope their generation will find the solutions to the violence and inhumanity that originate in these as well as the increasing environmental problems deforming our planet.”
CC took great joy in life and embraced adventures with her children with courage and an energy that often left them speechless. A trip to Italy in 2001 began an annual tradition of “Sibling Trips” with her children. Over the next twenty years, her children organized a trip together with her to a destination, historic or exotic, that provided opportunity for sightseeing and fellowship. These began a phase of her life of friendship and more intimate connection with and among her children that they all found to be as rich and valuable as she did. On each trip, Carolyn somehow found a way to demonstrate that she had as much courage and energy as her children — variously snorkeling, snow-tubing, parasailing, dogsledding, among other death-defying activities well into her 80s.
Carolyn is survived by her childhood friend, Celeste Hart of Dothan, Alabama. She is also survived by her children, Carolyn Evans Jackson (John G. Jackson) and Anne Borden Evans (William F. Wallace) of Great Falls, Virginia, Erasmus Hervey Evans III (Katherine Smith Evans) of Baltimore, Maryland, and Grace Read Evans (John J. Butler) and Mary Patterson Peters (Dan Peters) of Raleigh, North Carolina — as well as ten grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, beloved extended family and many friends. Her husband, E. Hervey Evans Jr. died in 2000.
A memorial service with covid-19 safety precautions will be held at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in McLean, Virginia in the near future at a date to be determined. There will also be a gathering for remembrances at Hillside Cemetery in Laurinburg North Carolina. Interments of her ashes will take place in the next year at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church and at Immanuel Presbyterian Church.
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