Evelyn Rowley Hicks

Early on she learned how to deal with 2 older brothers, Alvin and Jimmy and welcomed a younger brother, Bo, when she was about five years old.

The family moved to a new house on 51st Street across the street from the Austin city limits a few years after Bo was born; unfortunately the Rowley’s home caught on fire and burned to the ground not too long after that.

Clarence’s brother, George Rowley, also a motion picture projectionist by trade, and a man with circus experience managed the Deep Eddy Bathing Beach, a resort that included a swimming pool, camping and picnic area, and rental cottages near the banks of the Colorado River. Having no home, the Clarence Rowley family moved into the rental camp cottages at Deep Eddy; George Rowley’s family of six kids (cousins) and Clarence Rowley’s four kids, along with the Johnson’s, the Keller’s, Seaholm, the Harris’ kids all lived nearby, ran around together and became known as the Deep Eddy Rats. They hung out at the swimming pool and learned to swim and dive proficiently; Evelyn excelled at swimming and started competing in swim meets, winning medals and holding an Austin record for 13 years until it was broken. She continued swimming for enjoyment with her family until she was in her late 70’s, and always thought that her swimming had made her healthier in her old age.

She graduated from Austin High School when she was 16 years old at the same time as her two older brothers, Alvin and Jimmy. Evelyn attended the University of Texas for about 2 years, majoring in accounting. She then moved to San Antonio, in 1941, living with her Aunt Leone “Wonie” and her two cousins Marschneile and Esther, whose house was downtown on Commerce Street, and went to work at Joske’s Department Store nearby in the “bookkeeping department”.

Marschneile and Esther enjoyed roller skating at the North St. Mary’s Roller Rink and took Evelyn with them. San Antonio was full of soldiers stationed at Fort Sam Houston being trained to go overseas in the event of a war with Germany at this time. While Evelyn was skating, she noticed a young man (soldier) kept skating by and flirting with her, he knew Esther, and after the rink closed a group of the soldiers and the cousins went to get a bite to eat. The cute soldier who was flirting with her was in the group, and came up to Evelyn; he asked her if she liked chicken, she said yes, and he told her to “take a wing” (his arm). She told him that she thought he was with Esther, and he said no, he wanted to take her. There was an immediate attraction between Jack and Evelyn, and they started dating; it was soon after that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and war was declared on Dec. 7, 1941, the troops began preparing to be shipped overseas. The young couple went out on New Year’s Eve with Evelyn’s brother, Alvin and his girlfriend, Virginia in Austin. There was an auto accident that evening and the two couples received minor injuries, mostly cuts and bruises; Jack hit the windshield and the impact broke it. The couple ended up at Evelyn’s mother and dad’s house after being released from the hospital and that was when Jack proposed to Evelyn. They were married in San Antonio by a justice of the peace on January 17, 1942 attended by Esther, Marschneil, her husband Willie Rogers and Jack’s soldier friends. They had known each other for six weeks before getting married, but that was wartime and Jack was shipped out right after, not to Europe yet, but to other training in Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri and eventually to Europe.

Their first daughter, Janice Miriam Hicks was born in 1943, at St. David’s Hospital in Austin; Jack came home on a short leave for the birth of Jan.

Evelyn and Jan lived with her parent’s on West 11th Street while Jack was in the army until 1945; until WWII started, men were employed by banks, but with a lot of men having to go to war, the banks hired women. Evelyn was one of the first women chosen to work at the Capital National Bank in Austin during this time; working on an NCR posting machine which was a precursor to computers.

In 1948, Evelyn’s brother, Jimmy, started his own business, the J.M. Rowley Insurance Agency, and shortly thereafter, he asked her to be his bookkeeper. The plan was to go to work to buy a “television”, but as his business grew, she was promoted to “office manager” and stayed working at the Rowley Agency until she was 78 years old doing various jobs.

In 1950, Jack and Evelyn’s second daughter, Nancy Gayle Hicks, was born on March 25th, while the family was living on Anderson Lane in Austin in a small one bedroom house. A friend of Evelyn’s brother was developing a new subdivision in north Austin, called Crestview and her parents had their house moved from West 11th to 1701 Justin Lane. The Hicks family moved to a neighboring new subdivision, Violet Crown in mid-1950, at 1006 Karen Avenue.

The summer after Nancy was born, on the July 4th holiday, Jack Hicks, the fisherman, with the baby Nancy in a clothes basket and Jan and Evelyn drove to Port Aransas, for a beach/fishing vacation with friends the family knew from Jack’s VFW organization. Every summer after that, on the July 4th holiday, the Hicks’ went to Port Aransas on vacation for many years; the girls grew to love going there and have taken their families there too! It’s a Hicks tradition.

In 1959, oldest daughter, Jan, married Larry Weatherton and started their family the next year; Robert (Robby) was born in 1960, Laura (Laurie) in 1962, and Jay (Jaybird) in 1965. In 1962, Jack and Evelyn decided to permanently move to a small subdivision, North Shore Colony on Lake Travis; they bought 1 acre and built a house on it the year before, but Jack didn’t want to live in town after the house was built on the lake.

Suzanne Delise aka Suzy, Nancy’s first daughter was born in 1969. Then in 1982, Amanda Marie Trippet made her debut into our family, the baby.

Every Christmas Eve, the Hicks’ had all their family including Evelyn’s brothers, their kids and grandkids, neighbor friends, to their house for a party. The fare was Mexican food, with deer chili, tamales, cheese dip, beans, and Christmas cookies. This tradition was continued until Evelyn sold the house and is continued today by her children and grandchildren.

Jack and Evelyn drove 35 miles each way to work from their house on the lake until Jack retired in 1978; she developed breast cancer and had a mastectomy along with chemo and radiation, but Evelyn kept on working at Rowley Insurance and driving into Austin to work until 1982. She decided to retire so that she and Jack could do some traveling, however, their plans changed when Jack was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 1982 and passed away on May 22nd, 1983. He was sick for over 18 months and Evelyn was with him taking care of him and driving back in forth from Austin to Houston for his cancer treatments.

While living on Lake Travis, Evelyn and Jack became close friends with their neighbors in their subdivision, so Evelyn decided to stay in her home after Jack’s death, but started back working at Rowley Insurance. She traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and road trips to California with Jan and her kids, trips with Jimmy’s church group to Branson and Utah and to Las Vegas with her daughters, to the UK, a road trip to Connecticut with Jan, and to trips to the casinos with Jan and Nancy.

In 2005, Evelyn’s family insisted she move closer to them, so the lake house was sold and she moved to independent living apartment in Cedar Park and lived there for 5 years. She then moved to the Lakeline Oaks enhanced independent living apartments in Cedar Park in 2011, where she enjoyed the activities there including Bingo and especially playing cards “Spite and Malice” with her friends nearly every afternoon right after lunch.

She’s been blessed with five grandchildren – Robby, Laurie, Jay, Jan and Larry’s kids, and Suzy and Amanda, Nancy’s girls. She also has eight great grandchildren, Robby’s boys, Bryant and Nick, Jay and his wife, Sue’s children, Daniel and Amy, Laurie and Robert’s daughter, Emily, Suzy’s son, Matthew and daughter, Rachel and their brother, Johnathan, and Amanda and Ryan’s son Ryder.

Evelyn turned 95 in October, 2016, and her health began to decline significantly in early 2017. Her granddaughter, Suzy, has been her main health caretaker for the last 7 or 8 years along with Jan taking care of her business and calling to check on her every day.

She loved going to play the slot machines, loved games dominoes and on the computer, Spyder solitaire; she always loved brightly colored clothes and dangly earrings, but most of all she loved her family.

When Evelyn passed away on July 15th, she was the last of her siblings, surviving her 3 brothers. She is survived by her daughter Jan Weatherton and husband Larry, and by her daughter, Nancy Trippet, her grandchildren, great grandchildren, 2 sisters-in-laws, nephews, nieces, cousins and friends.

A memorial celebration of Evelyn’s Life will be held at 1:30 PM on Saturday, July 29th at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks, 14501 North Interstate 35, Pflugerville, TX 78660.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice Austin, 4107 Spicewood Springs Road, Austin, TX 78759, or a favorite charity.