Ena G. Evans

Ena was born on August 8, 1930, in Ipswich, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. Her parents were Philip Dixon and Annie Raybe-Dixion. She had three sisters; Nancy, Lamata, and Ivy Lyn, and one half-brother Sam.

As a child of the Great Depression to subsistence farmers in Jamaica, hard work was a constant in Ena’s early life. Her parents cultivated Pimento (Allspice) as a cash crop. They also cultivated traditional Jamaican vegetables - potatoes, yams, and had fruit trees - mangoes, avocado (pear), along with chickens and goats.

Even with all the work to be done at home, Ena completed primary school. Giving birth to her first child, Lorna Lawrence, Ena moved to Kingston where she worked as a domestic and a seamstress. There she met and married Arthur Fernandez Evans. Together they had seven children; Claude, Neville, Barbara, Anthony (Teddy), Audrey, Sandra, and Kay. They blended their families and Ena helped to raise Arthur’s previous children.

Coming from meager means with only a grade school education, Ena and Arthur focused on the future for their family. Thus, Ena and Arthur became entrepreneurs in Kingston, first purchasing a home on Walkers Cresent, then a grocery shop, then a second shop with a bar. By the birth of their last child, Kay, they were living a middle-class life. However, with so many children, they knew they could not provide educationally for their large family in Jamaica, where high school education was not free to all students.

So, in 1965 Ena and Arthur made a life changing move. They immigrated to the US where their children could at least attain a high school education. Sacrificing, they initially immigrated by themselves for a year to establish a life in NY, leaving their entire family in three separate homes of family and friends. A year later, they brought up four daughters. The following year they brought over their other children.

Ena worked as a waitress at the Albert Einstein Hospital, Bronx, NY, where tips comprised a significant part of her income. Within eight years of being in the US, they bought two homes in the Bronx. True to her Jamaican roots, Ena became a businesswoman and a top salesperson, for Avon, Tupperware, and Copperware.

After 25 years at Albert Einstein, Ena retired. She uprooted herself again, this time moving to Sunrise, Florida in 1984, which at the time was a small hamlet outside of Ft. Lauderdale. Ena also began a new career as a sales associate at Sears in the Broward Mall. At Sears, she was trailblazer as a woman of color, a sales associate in the major appliances. She continued her entrepreneurial ways, being a residential rental property real estate investor, and owned a convenience store.

In addition to her entrepreneurial work, Ena also focused on helping raise several of her grand and great-grandchildren. Grandma had a love for family, and she took this work seriously.

Ena also had a love for travel. While in Florida, she traveled to London, Paris, Hawaii, Alaska, Trinidad, Panama, and of course to Jamaica. She also traveled the Caribbean with her daughter, Kay, and to Branson, MO, Dollywood, TN, and many other cities in the US. She also loved cruising the high seas. Attending Jamaica’s Governor General Ball celebrating Jamaica’s Independence Day black-tie and gown soiree, was a high point of her life – She had Arrived!!

During her years in Florida, Ena was member of Plantation Worship Center and her final church home, Community Christian Church, Tamarac. Embracing the role of the family matriarch, Ena is revered by many family & friends. She passed away peacefully at age 91. We thus celebrate her wonderful, nurturing and giving life.

Ena is predeceased by her loving husband, Arthur, daughter, Kay and Arthur’s son, Keith (Dalphus) Evans. Ena leaves to cherish her memory, Dorothy Nugent, Audley Evans, Lorna Lawrence, Claude Evans (wife Angella), Valerie Lewin (husband Wesley), Neville Evans (wife Janice), Barbara Evans, Anthony (Teddy) Evans (wife Janice), Audrey Evans, Sandra Daley (husband Albert), Sharon Evans, and a host of grandchildren, numerous great grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins, in-laws, and friends.