Juanita Holdway Evans

Juanita Holdway Evans, age 98, died on Thursday, January 4th at Shannondale of Maryville. She was a native of Hawkins County and a graduate of Rogersville High School. She continued her education at Tusculum College, graduating at the age of nineteen. She had the distinction of being valedictorian of her elementary, high school and college classes. In her senior year at Tusculum, she was listed in Who’s Who among Students in American Colleges and Universities. At the age of seventeen, Juanita was a full-time English teacher at Morristown High School.

Upon receiving her degree, she was offered a job teaching English at Tusculum, but she declined because while there she had met Roswell Evans of Morristown, and they were married between her last two semesters. He had been called into the service and, like so many WWII brides, she chose to follow him and to live near the various Air Force bases where he was stationed around the country. In a little over a year, they lived in five places between Texas and Massachusetts before he left for Okinawa.

When the war ended, they set up housekeeping in Morristown, where they lived for several years, then moved to Knoxville then, in 1962, to Maryville.

As soon as they arrived here, they joined the First Baptist Church, where she was an active member until health problems prevented her attendance. She held many offices in Training Union, WMU, as a Sunday School teacher and as a member of the Board of Trustees. For a time, she and her husband taught Sunday School at the Wayside Mission on Home Avenue, sponsored by First Baptist.

Since 1948, she had been a member of clubs affiliated with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. These included in Morristown, the Child Welfare Circle as president, and the Junior Reading Circle as the founding president; in Knoxville, Akima Club; and in Maryville since 1962, the Chilhowee Club, in which she held many offices.

She taught school for about five years, then, after her daughters were grown, she spent the last 16 years of her working life as corporate secretary of Tenn-EDD Products Company, of which her husband was president.

Mrs. Evans was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, George Roswell Evans; her parents, Hugh Harrison Holdway and Mayme Jones Holdway of Rogersville and her brother, Joe C. Holdway of Nashville and Maryville. She is survived by her daughters, Emily Lenn (Jerry) of Knoxville and Elizabeth Large (Jim) of Maryville; grandsons Joseph Lenn of Knoxville, Nathan Large of Oak Ridge and Ethan Large (Rebekah) of Oak Ridge; one granddaughter, Meredith Lenn Quillen (Bradley) of Woodbine, Georgia.

The graveside service will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that charitable contributions in Juanita’s name be given to First Baptist Church of Maryville, 202 W. Lamar Alexander Pkwy., Maryville, TN 37801 or Mission of Hope, P.O. Box 51824, Knoxville, TN 37950-1824.