Maedelle Hearington Evans was born May 12, 1918 in Wildersville, TN. Her mother died when she was 10 and she spent the rest of her childhood helping to raise her younger siblings. While most of her family left school early to work, she graduated from the University of Tennessee. She married Rex Evans while he was still in the Navy. She lived in California, Cuba and wherever her husband’s military career took them. Mrs. Evans was a High School home economics teacher for most of her life and an employee of the State of TN later in life. Her first grandchild was born on her birthday and she loved to tell that grandchild the story of how she proudly wrote her birthday present’s name on the chalkboard for all her students to see. She made most of her own clothes and many clothes for her only daughter and granddaughter. She was an avid gardener, growing the family’s fruits and vegetables. She loved to tend to her rose garden, but her family remembers her spending most of her time in the kitchen, carefully preparing food for the people she loved. She leaves behind recipes for strawberry cake and Thanksgiving dressing that her family will prepare in her memory every year. One candle on my birthday cake will always be hers, in memory of the many, many birthdays we celebrated together. She will be missed but never forgotten by her daughter, her three grandchildren and their spouses and her 8 great-grandchildren. This weekend, her family will gather from all over the country to celebrate and not to mourn.