Memorials › Evelyn Pettigrew Rhea

Evelyn Pettigrew Rhea

19 Aug 1915 – 20 Mar 2009

Birth19 Aug 1915
Death20 Mar 2009
Added byDale on 21 Jul 2014
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133128433

Bio

Evelyn Pettigrew Rhea was born August 19, 1915 in the town of Maverick in Runnels County,Texas, to Ernest Claud Pettrigew and Alta Witherspoon Pettigrew, the third of their seven children. She was a sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, teacher, artist, world-traveler and friend to all. Evelyn's earliest memory was at the age of six when the family moving to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and crossing the Red River during a flood. Later that year the family moved to the Word Ranch in the panhandle of Texas where Claud took a job as a cowboy. Leaving her father on the Word Ranch, Evelyn's moved with her mother and siblings to Channing, Texas to await the birth of Evelyn's last brother, Tommy who was born on New Year's Day 1922. The children never went back to the Word Ranch. Because of a blizzard, Mr. Word went bankrupt and could not pay Evelyn's father. Instead he gave him a team of horses, a wagon, and a check for $100.00. The family then started back to Maverick, Texas in a covered wagon. Along the way to Maverick the family stopped to pick cotton in Justiceburg, Texas, where they stayed and homesteaded 160 acres. The first winter they survived by living in and using the covered wagon and a dugout made of 2 X 12's and canvas. Evelyn spent the remaining years of her childhood on the property where a permanent house was built and many conveniences added. When she was eight she met Bonnie Ruth Rankin who was a day older or a day younger; Evelyn never could remember which it was. She and Bonnie Ruth became BFF (Best Friends Forever). Bonnie Ruth stated there would never be a friendship like they had again. They stayed in touch with each other the rest of Evelyn's life, friends for 85 years. After finishing eighth grade at Justiceburg, Evelyn went to the "big" city of Post to board with a family and finish high school. At Post High School, she played basketball using girl's rules of the time that dictated players had to stay and play in only one third of the court. Upon graduation in 1933 she married Ezekiel (Zeke) Clinton Rhea. Zeke worked for the Santa Fe railroad so on their honeymoon she took her very first train ride to Detroit. There they picked up a brand new Chevrolet, right off the assembly line and drove it home via the Chicago World's Fair. She kept trinkets of this trip all her life. Shortly after getting back to Justiceburg they moved up on to the high plains to Roundup, a train-stop along the railroad. After a few years in Roundup, they moved to "Maryneal on Earth". It seems that the water tower read "Maryneal on Earth" when she arrived and even though the name was later changed to just plain "Maryneal" Evelyn always called it "Maryneal on Earth". During the Great Depression, Evelyn remembered seeing people living in a ditch across the street from their house. Thanks to her husband's job with the railroad she always had a house and food. She considered herself one of the lucky one's. In 1941 Zeke's job took them to Plainview where they would spend the next 33 years. In 1948, her first son, Clinton was born and in 1955, her second son, Stephen. In 1957 24 years after she graduated from high school, Evelyn began attending college at night. She graduated from Wayland Baptist College In 1961 and began her teaching career in Cotton Center, Texas. After a year she took a teaching position in Plainview at the oldest school in town, Lamar Elementary. When Plainview built a brand new elementary school (Edgemeer) she moved to the new school and spent the rest of career in Plainview teaching. During each summer she would go to school at locations all over the country including West Texas State, Texas Tech, Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge sponsored by Texas A&M, and University of Oklahoma. In 1970 she received a Master's degree from Abilene Christian College. Then she received a Counseling Certificate from West Texas State and finally in 1973 a Diagnostician Certificate from Texas Tech. With these certifications she applied and was accepted as a counselor in the Mesquite school system in 1973. Evelyn spent the rest of her career in Mesquite diagnosing learning disabilities of troubled students. After 34 years teaching and counseling, she retired in 1985. In the spring of 1985, at the age of 69, she entered the Capitol Statesman 10,000 meter race in Austin. TX. She intended to walk but got carried away when everyone else was running, so she just kept running and finished eighth of all the people over 60. Later in life, Evelyn developed a passion for painting and art. She painted many beautiful canvases of sunrises, sunsets, scenes from in and around the homestead, and other inspirational designs. Evelyn visited all over the continental US. In the mid 1980s, she became an international traveler by visiting Mexico City with her sister Gladys and nephew Philip. She visited England, Ireland, France, Germany, Holland, Spain and Morocco with her friend Peggy Green. In the US she went to the Rose Parade and Alaska where she went to Point Barrow, the northern most point in the US. In 2004 Evelyn had a mild stroke and later that year fell and broke her hip. After hip replacement surgery in 2006, she reluctantly left her the home, friends, and church she loved in Mesquite and moved to Round Rock to be closer to her sons. She passed away on March 20, 2009, at the Lighthouse Hospice surrounded by her sons. Evelyn lived through an amazing period of time; she started in a covered wagon and a dugout and lived to Model T's, jet airplanes; a man on the moon, and the onset of the age of computers. More than anything else in her wonderful life, Evelyn loved her sons, Clinton and Stephen, her only grandson, Gregory Dane Rhea, and her two wonderful great-grandchildren, Kendrick and Courtney.

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