Evelyn C. Crais

Evelyn Carrie Crais, beloved wife and mother, died Monday, Oct. 18, 2010, after a brief illness. She was 93, born July 9, 1917. She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert E. Crais; and brothers, Herman Melancon, Roger Melancon and Melvin Melancon. She married her husband in a spur-of-the-moment service before a justice of the peace at 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning in 1941, only a few short months before Pearl Harbor. She traveled with him as an Army wife during the war years and resettled in Baton Rouge after the war to build a family. The two were married for 44 years until Robert E. died unexpectedly in 1985. Visiting at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government St., on Wednesday, Oct. 20, was from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Visiting Thursday in the funeral home chapel from 9 a.m. until religious service at 10 a.m. Interment in Resthaven Gardens of Memory. Survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Patricia Crais, Los Angeles; grandchildren, Lauren Crais, and Carol and Wayne Topping, all of Los Angeles, Bill and Andrea Gleason, Princeton, N.J.; and great-grandchildren, Jeffrey Gleason, Celia Gleason and Trey Topping.