Ernestine Irene (Lynn) Evans

Services for Mrs. Ernestine Irene Lynn Evans will be held on Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. Greater Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Marlin. Burial will follow at Zion Rock Cemetery in Highbank, Texas. Omega Omega service will be held on Friday, November 15, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. Greater Providence Missionary Baptist Church, 412 Commerce Street Marlin, Texas 76661

A Life Well Lived

Ernestine Irene Lynn Evans was born on October 27, 1922.  She was the 3rd child of John and Irene Lynn who preceded her in death.  Three sisters and five brothers also preceded her in death.  Ernestine accepted Christ as her personal savior at Zion Rock Baptist Church where she remained active until her death.  During her years at Zion Rock she served in many capacities, including pianist, organist, choir director, and Sunday School teacher, most of the roles were done simultaneously.      

On December 21, 1974, she married the Late Reverend Dr. E. Leroy Evans and moved to San Francisco where Dr. Evans served as Sr. Pastor of First Friendship Institutional Baptist Church until his death in 1985.  “First Lady” Evans (as she was affectionately called) served in many capacities; she was honored for her service, especially musical, at Friendship Institutional Baptist Church.  She served on the Board of Directors of Friendship Village, a low rent housing development that opened in October 1970.

Ernestine was a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School.  She attended Tyler Barber College in Austin, Texas to earn money for college.  She later attended Sam Huston College (Huston Tillotson University) and worked in barber shops between classes to pay for her college and provide financial assistance to her widowed mother.  She received a BA degree in 1949 from Sam Huston in Austin and received her Master of Education Degree from Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in August 1955.    During the Summer, she cut hair in Marlin and was known as the “Lady” barber on Wood Street at Humpy’s Barbershop. 

Her first teaching job was in High Bank; she later became one of three teachers at Rock Dam School in Satin where she taught several generations of families.  She was recently honored by her former Satin students.  Ernestine also taught in the Marlin ISD, Austin ISD, and San Francisco, California schools.  Several years after her husband’s death, she moved back to Texas to be near family. 

Ernestine was a charter member of the Marlin Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.  She was a lifetime member and remained active until her death.  In 2018 she was honored by the Waco Alumnae Chapter as having 50 plus years of service in the Sorority.  She loved her Sorority; a sister and many of her nieces and family are also members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.  In retirement, Ernestine became very active in several organizations, including the Retired Teachers Association, Marlin Chapter of the NAACP, and the many community projects associated with those organizations. 

Ernestine was passionate about all her endeavors, whether it was world travelling, creating and teaching ceramics, fund raising, folding clothes with the precision of a machine, raising chickens, maintaining vegetable and flower gardens, canning and cooking.  Her Teacakes, Dewberry Cobbler, Pecan Pie and jelly were famous among relatives and friends as well as her Doctor and medical staff.   

Ernestine’s love for her family resulted in her organizing the 1st Lynn family reunion in 1979; with the assistance of relatives she researched and documented the family history.  There have been several family reunions since then.   Ernestine attended and led all the family reunions except for 2019, when she was hospitalized (although she tried to get released to attend).   Her love of family and community resulted in her writing and financing the development of a website where High Bank’s rich African American history could be preserved forever, highbanktexashistory.com 

Ernestine was organized and diligent in all her endeavors.  Her organizational and business skills were exceptional, and she frequently used those skills to assist family members and others.  Her most recent successful endeavor was the planning of her final birthday gathering held on October 26, 2019.  She planned and personally invited her family, church members, and friends for “one last gathering before she went to be with the Lord”.  Her prayer was answered when the Lord allowed her to see this gathering fulfilled. 

Ernestine leaves to forever cherish her memory, several nieces and nephews, whom she loved and treated as her own.  Three grandsons by marriage, James, Kim and Don Evans, and a host of other relatives and friends. 

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