Evelyn Frances Wilkinson

Evelyn was born on May 13, 1920 in the very small town of Claude in the panhandle region of northwest Texas. Evelyn’s mom worked for the local Texaco fuel distributor and her mom also rented rooms in their house to young women who taught school in Claude. Evelyn’s family worked hard and got by well enough, even in the tough times of the depression and West Texas dust storms.

In the early 1940’s, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was installing telephone lines in the Texas panhandle, and one of the construction crews was run by a young TCU graduate named Ward Wilkinson. While working in Claude, Ward saw Evelyn on the street and somehow asked her out for a date. That was the beginning of an almost 70-year love affair between Evelyn and Ward.

Evelyn and Ward married in January of 1942, just a month after Pearl Harbor. A few months later, Ward was in the U.S. Army, and headed to Australia to run Army construction crews that were building communication lines for the war in the Pacific. Ward would be gone for almost three years.

After the war, Ward returned to his career at Southwestern Bell, and Evelyn and Ward began to plan their family. Working for Southwestern Bell was a little like being in the army, as they were regularly on the move for Ward’s work, from Abilene to Beaumont, to Lubbock, to Dallas, to Austin, and finally back to Dallas. Evelyn and Ward stayed in Dallas after Ward retired, until 2005 when Evelyn and Ward moved to The Buckingham retirement community in Houston. Ward passed away in 2009, and Evelyn continued living at The Buckingham until her death. The Buckingham provided wonderful care and support for 14 years,

Evelyn and Ward had their daughter Connie in 1947, and their son Mark in 1950. Connie and Mark went along for the ride as they seamlessly changed schools when dad’s job moved them from town to town. Everything worked out just fine for the Wilkinson kids.

Evelyn’s daughter Connie is married to Rick and they have two children Leigh and Kyle. Leigh is married to Hardin, and Leigh has four children—Reese, Bo, Will and Hartley. Kyle is married to Katie and they have two children—Konrad and Kampbell.

Evelyn’s son Mark is married to Sandy, and Mark has two children—Bret and Russ. Bret is married to Jennifer and they have a son Josh. So, Evelyn was mother to two, grandmother to four, and great grandmother to seven. Evelyn was great at being a mom.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Evelyn’s name to the Edna Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth, Texas or to another charity of your choice.

Visitation will be on Friday, November 1st at 9:00 am in the chapel of Memorial Oaks Funeral Home, followed by a funeral service at 10:00 am. Interment will be at Memorial Oaks Cemetery directly following the funeral service.