Evelyn H Kyle

Evelyn Kyle was a treasure to all that knew her and that would be many. She passed peacefully at Hope West Hospice Care Center in Grand Junction, on December 28, 2023, with family by her side, at the age of 105. She was born in Princeton Kansas on July 14, 1918, to Bruce and Nellie (Gilliland) Howard. The youngest of their three children. Her sister, Dorothy was three years older and brother, Homer a year and a half. Her family left Kansas for Colorado in 1938. Evelyn was the Salutatorian of her Lane High School class in Kansas. She received a scholarship to business school. After graduation she took a job in Pasadena, CA. She hoped to become an actress and was involved with a little theater group there. A shirttail relative from Kansas was stationed at nearby March Field and started courting her. James Page (Jim) Kyle and Evelyn were married November 15, 1941, in the chapel of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles. Jim was a private and couldn’t pay the price other churches were charging service men for weddings of non-parishioners. The priest at the cathedral told them all that would be necessary for him to marry them in the church was a letter each year on their anniversary. Which they honored until his death. They were lifelong Episcopalians. While still on their honeymoon they were walking down the street in LA with Jim in his uniform. They thought it strange that the streets were empty. A shopkeeper came out and told them that Jim needed to return to his base immediately. It was December 7. Jim was soon assigned to Officer’s Candidate School, and Evelyn became a gypsy following him by train to the various military bases where he was stationed. Their oldest child, Sandra Lynne, was born in October 1942 at her grandparent’s, Dr. and Mrs. Karl Kyle’s, home in Wellsville Kansas. The Army Air Corps took them to many states before he left the military. Their second child Jimmie (Howard James) was born in Fruita, Colorado in November 1944, where her parents had a farm. Their youngest son, (Karl Nicholas) Nick, was also born in Fruita on Christmas Day 1948. Jim had gone to work for the Independent Lumber company after leaving the military. They moved quite a bit with the company. They started in Grand Junction then to Palisade where they were living when their youngest child, Mari Evelyn, was born in 1951 at St. Mary’s. From there they went to Meeker. While there she again became active in theater. They returned to Grand Junction in 1956 and from there to Cortez in 1957 where Jim built what is now Ace Hardware. They were in Cortez for many years before moving to Telluride then back to Grand Junction in the 70’s. The Kyle’s stayed active in the Episcopal Church wherever they went, and she was always in a theater group. She returned to college in the 80’s and obtained a degree in theater, Suma cum laude, from Mesa State when she was 65. She was on the original board to restore the Avalon theater where we held her 100th birthday celebration. She said at that time, “I certainly hope I’ve done more with my life than turn 100.” Had she ever. The Mesa County Library celebrated some of her accomplishments. You can read about them by visiting the site: https://mesacountylibraries.org/2018/09/local-history-thursday-celebrating-centenarian-evelyn-kyle/.

Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents and brother and sister, her husband Jim, of 60 years, her son Nick, son-in-law Frank Pyle, and grandson Richard Russell. She leaves her two daughters, Sandra Pyle of Dolores and Mari Martin of Denver, and her son, Jim Kyle of Grand Junction, nine grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren and three great-greats. Her special friend Anne Saunders is also to be remembered, along with her nieces and nephews.

A Communion Service of Remembrance will be held at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 3888 27 1/2 Rd., Grand Junction, CO on Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 10am. Inurnment of her cremated remains will follow at the church columbarium. A Celebration of her life will follow at the church.

Memorial gifts can be made in her name at Museum of the West or Hope West Hospice.

She would want you all to know how much she loved you and treasured your friendship.