Evelyn Petersian

Evelyn was a strong woman. As we all know, she was the glue of the family. Evelyn was always there for all of us no matter what we needed. She showed us love and support throughout our lives.

Evelyn was born on March 18, 1927 on a ranch in the Lone Star area of Fowler, California. She attended Lone Star Elementary school and graduated from Fowler High School in 1945. After high school Evelyn attended beauty school and became a hair stylist.

In May of 1948 she met Elbert Petersian and soon fell in love. They were married on October 9, 1948. Evelyn and Elbert were married for 71 years and passed away 27 days apart. They had two children, Ralph and Susan, that kept their lives busy.

In 1960, Evelyn went to work for Fresno Unified School District as a cook. She started her work at the elementary school site her children attended. She finished her career over twenty-five years later, as the Manager of Adam’s Food Production Center for the district.

After retirement Evelyn and Elbert traveled a lot. They took many wonderful trips with the Shriners. Some of the places they visited were Ireland, France, Italy, Hungary and many states in the USA. They also enjoyed many cruises together. On some of the trips they took the grandchildren along. Some of Evelyn’s favorite trips were the bus trips to Reno. How she loved the slot machines. Evelyn and Susan would also go to Table Mountain to gamble. They played the penny slot machines. Evelyn would get so excited when she bet 15 cents and won 20 cents back. She was our gambling partner.

Evelyn loved being a grandma and great grandma. She was simply known as grandma to many and “G-ma” to her great grandchildren. She did many things for her grandchildren and great grandchildren, which included reading, playing, dancing, sewing and always making sure they felt loved. She sent care packages to the grandchildren when they were away at college. These packages always had their favorite sweet treats and other baked goodies.

Evelyn was very talented in the area of decoration. She loved Christmas and not only decorated every room in her house but helped all of us decorate our homes. She was the one we called when we needed help with any decorating.

One of Evelyn’s passions was crocheting. She made throws for our beds, scarfs, hats, blankets and beautiful baby blankets. She even would make blankets for the great grandchildren’s stuffed animals otherwise known as loveys.

In August of 2017 Evelyn found out she had cancer. She had surgery in October 2017 at UCLA and soon became friends with all the nurses. She made them hair bows out of pink gauze. Evelyn had a second surgery at UCLA spending a total of 73 days in the hospital. We were all heartbroken in October of 2019 when we found out Evelyn’s cancer had returned. Through all this Evelyn was one tough lady. Our family would like to thank all the doctors and nurses at UCLA for Evelyn’s excellent care.

Evelyn is survived by her sister Margie Haggerty and her husband Thomas; her daughter Susan Toste and her husband Paul; 3 grandchildren: Paul Toste III and his wife Stephanie; Theresa Toste and Sarah Petersian and 3 great grandchildren: Taten, Aram and Zoe.

Words cannot begin to express how much we all love Evelyn. Paul and Susan enjoyed having Evelyn live in their home for the last three years. Life is just not the same without her. God blessed us with a person like Evelyn. Rest in peace Evelyn and know you will forever be in our hearts.

Our family would like to thank all of you for the love, support and kindness we have received during this difficult time, as we celebrate Evelyn’s life.

The Funeral Service will be held at Whitehurst, Sullivan, Burns & Blair Funeral Home on Thursday February 13, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.