In Memory

Ron Evans

Ron Evans

Ronnie Lee Evans, born in 1949, passed away from Lymphoma after six months in King County on February 21, 1993.  Cheri Evans had the privilege of being married to Ronnie for 13 years.  They had 3 beautiful children: Jereme, Andrew and Courtney and now 5 grandchildren have graced our family. He was a wonderful husband and father, we miss him always and look forward to seeing him in heaven.  Ron was also a member of the Army National Guard.  He was a resident of Snohomish County and is buried at Floral Hills Cemetery, Lynnwood, Washington.



 
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10/10/16 11:29 PM #1    

Julianne Denby (Anderson)

My childhood friend Ronnie Lee Evans is gone, though certainly not forgotten.   He was born in 1949 and died February 21, 1993.  Ronnie was the first of his siblings who died of “stomach” cancer.  His brother, Jimmy (the oldest), also died of some sort of stomach cancer.  He and my older brother Johnny were best friends.  Jimmy’s cancer took him quickly.  Turning the clock forward several years, the brothers’ sister, Bonnie, also died of cancer.  They called it pancreatic cancer.  It was thought that all three siblings probably died of pancreatic cancer.  Strange, that I lost my early childhood friend Ronnie, my brother lost his good buddy Jimmy, and my sister lost her close friend Bonnie—all to cancer.

 

Growing up in Alderwood Manor, the only playmates I had were boys, until my girlfriend Linda Rowley moved to the neighborhood the summer prior to my entering Lynnwood Junior High. It didn’t bother me that my only playmates were boys, because that’s the way it was.  Ronnie was one of those boys.  Other than flying kites in a neighboring field, a favorite activity was playing what we called “workup baseball” in the horse pasture across the street from my grandparents.  If you’re wondering if we had to “tidy up the area” before we played, we did.  And if there were horses in the pasture, they let us be.  We had so much fun playing workup baseball, rotating positions so that everyone played each position until it was their turn at bat.  Best of all, we did a lot of laughing!

 

Getting enough kids to play workup was easy.  Even at that young age, we knew how to use the telephone, and called each other when we wanted to play ball.  I remember vividly counting the number of rings of the telephone, knowing to only answer the phone after three rings; otherwise, you risked answering the phone when the call was intended for another party on your party line.  I can’t be alone in remembering the days of the party phone lines.

 

Gosh, we kids had great fun together.  Being stuck with only boys to play with was okay.  Ronnie and I got along quite nicely.  One afternoon, he wanted to show me something special, but we had to climb up a tree in front of his house to see it.  As we were making our way up that tree, we were sing-songing M I S S I S S I P P I .  We thought we were so smart that we could spell such a long word.   M I S S I S S I P P I .   Ronnie’s surprise was worth the dirty hands and scrapes from the tree.  His something special was something special--a bird nest with tiny baby birds in it.  They were so ugly, yet they were cute.

 

Ronnie was just too young to die.  I felt such sadness when I learned of his passing.  All those years of schooling and homework--for what?  That was a tough question for which I didn’t have a satisfactory answer.  And now, as I look forward to next year’s 50-year class reunion for our Meadowdale High School Class of 1967, I’ve been looking through my 1967 Mesika.  Turning to page 22, I see Ronnie’s face smiling back at me.  And though he’s been gone for so many years, he has not been forgotten.


10/11/16 08:49 AM #2    

Susan Akers (Thompson)

Thank you Julianne.  That was a lovely tribute to Ron.   I didn't know him, but was rather surprised at the way cancer moved through that family, especially in such young people (When did the 40's get to be young?).  

I would be curious knowing if these children lived in a different area when they were young.   I've had experience of young children living near Hanford who have ultimately died of Pancreatic plus other cancers. It doesn't feel random when it hits so many in one family.   Of course there is always the genetic factor.  

Also looking forward to the reunion.   Need to get out my Mesika.   Hope the plans are going well.


10/12/16 12:08 PM #3    

Julianne Denby (Anderson)

Susan, because we spoke about Ronnie yesterday (October 11, 2016), you know that his family lived on the same street in Alderwood Manor--188th St SW. They did not, however, live in the same house throughout Ronnie's childhood years.  One of my earlier and sad memories of the Evans family was standing on the road, watching their house burn down.  As I remember, it was a faulty cord--an iron cord, I think, that caused the fire.  As they owned the lot adjacent and east of their destroyed house, they rebuilt there.

 

Sue, I so enjoyed reminiscing with you about “the good old days,” especially our days at Maple Park Elementary.  With our 50th Meadowdale High School Reunion just 11 months away, I’m hoping that more of our classmates will join our wonderful website (http://www.meadowdale1967LynnwoodWa.org/) and visit “yesterday” with those of us already joined.  There are stories to be read and stories to be told.  Our website is there for us classmates to enjoy.


10/14/16 10:02 AM #4    

Robert Andrews

I remember Ronnie from 5th and 6th grades. He may have even been in my first grade class with Mrs. Collard.
He was always laughing or smiling, and fun to be around. It's always  sad when you lose those fun kinds of memories.


09/06/17 04:05 PM #5    

Stan Stebing (MHS '66)

Cheri Evans McLeod

 

I had the privilege of being married to Ronnie for 13 years.  He graduated from WWU with a degree in Electronic Engineering and worked as an Engineer for Data IO.  We had 3 beautiful children: Jereme, Andrew and Courtney and now 5 grandchildren have graced our family. He was a wonderful husband and father, we miss him always and look forward to seeing him in heaven.  Thank you for remembering Ronnie, he was a good friend to many.

Cheri Evans McLeod


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