Thomas Morgan Evans

Thomas Morgan Evans was born October 1, 1928 in Ovid, Colorado. He was born to Margaret and Fred Evans. He had one older sister, Frances McEwen (deceased), and three younger sisters, Norma Burns (married to Dr. Daryl Burns), Marilyn Widlund and Kathy Manhart.

Tom was a veteran and served in the Army during the Korean War. Upon his return from active duty he was married and from that union came two children, Susan James (married to David James) and Tom Evans, Jr. (deceased). Susan and David have 3 children, Jenna, Stephanie and Alex. The marriage ended in divorce. Tom Jr.’s marriage ended in divorce but from his marriage, they had one daughter, Jessica. Jessica is married to Chris Abaire and has two children Jaxon David LeFree and McKinley Thomas Evans-Abaire.

Tom was an accounting teacher at Parks School of Business. He had a student, Judith Giese, who took this class from him. Their relationship at that time was one of teacher and student. Over the years, Tom and Judith would occasionally see each other on the 16th Street Mall and always say hi to each other. In October of 1981, both Tom and Judith saw each other in front of Baker’s Shoe Store. Both of them were going through a divorce and a mutual friendship began. Judith was transferred to Lubbock, Texas by her job at Petro Lewis. However, the friendship between Tom and Judith was growing into something more and they managed to see each other often.

Tom was visiting Judith in December of 1982 and they both along with Judith’s daughter, Shauna, were going to return to Denver for Christmas. Judith’s daughter, Shauna, passed away during this time. It was Tom who found her. She died in her sleep. Shauna was a type 1 diabetic and had lived with the disease for 19 years.

Judith decided to return to Denver and in July 1983 both Tom and Judith acquired a condo and began living together. In 1983, Tom also gave Judith the greatest gift he could give her, he showed her how to sober up in a 12-Step program. This program showed both of them how to live life sober and how to live life on life’s terms. They went to many meetings each week all during their life.

On July 13, 1986, Tom and Judith made their union legal and married each other. What a wonderful day that was. Several friends were present and Judge Alfred C. Harrell officiated the ceremony. This then was the beginning of a truly happy life together. We both thought our marriage was a very exceptional one. We got along very well with each other.

Judith had one living daughter, Tamara Pierce who had four children, Mary Frances Burgoon (married to Jim Burgoon), Joseph Johnston, Christina Banning (married to Jordan Banning) and Zack Shaw. Mary and Jim have one daughter, Gabrielle and another one on the way. Christina and Jordan have three children, Devon, Rebecca “Beca”, and Elizabeth “Bella”.

Tom was raised on a farm where times were tough and farm equipment had to be fixed without buying new. He never fully appreciated the wonderful talent he had for fixing anything. It was an amazing experience to watch him tear things apart, fix whatever was wrong, reassemble it and it worked. Judith, of course, took full advantage of her husband’s talents.

Tom entered a new phase of his life in March of 1980. He admitted that he had a problem with alcohol and went into treatment. When it came time for Judith to follow the same path in February of 1983, he was there to help her.

When Tom was 59 he retired from Fuelco Resource Development Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Public Service Company. This man was not someone who could sit on his hands for very long. Before long both he and Judith were taking flying lessons to learn to fly small aircraft. They both acquired their private pilot licenses. This then was a new era in their lives and they had a lot of fun flying places instead of driving. Of course, Tom’s ability to fix things came in very useful on the maintenance of this plane. Shortly thereafter, Tom and a friend of his, Keith, began buying planes and renting them back to flying clubs. This was a great time in the lives of Tom and Judith.

Tom was not one to sit idly by and soon he had two Laundromats which of course gave him a wonderful opportunity to use his talent of fixing things. By the time Judith retired both Laundromats had been sold. It was now time to find something else. Tom always liked to go to Thrift stores to look for bargains. It was there that he discovered the wonderful world of clocks. Soon their house was full of clocks that he had reworked and made run. I don’t think that the gongs were every fully matched but it was a comforting sound to him to hear the ticking of a clock and the gong on the hour.

Before Judith moved to Lubbock, they took country western dance lessons and began dancing up a storm. Close friends, Jim and Nancy Peterson and Ron and Karen Dreher, joined them and a long lasting friendship was formed. They all went somewhere every weekend and sometimes during the week to dance. The friends all embarked on a new type of dance, Square Dancing. What fun that was. Shortly thereafter they all were asked to join the Classic Dancers Exhibition Group. Another couple came into the group, John and Yoryeah Roberts. The group could go anywhere and have a ready made square. The traveling with the Classic Dancers provided some of the best memories and of course great exercise and always food had to be involved.

Then Tom’s life began to take on a somber note. Six years ago he embarked on a war with cancer. He won the first battle. Then about 6 months ago, a second battle was waged. Tom won this battle too. But the war was not over. On his third battle, cancer claimed his life on April 5, 2011 at 2:15 p.m.

This man, Thomas Morgan Evans, was the love of Judith’s life. She had great respect for him and loved him unconditionally. He had given her so much and felt that their marriage was made in heaven. They both thought they were soul-mates. Almost until the day Tom died, they always told each other how special their lives together had been. When Tom could no longer talk, he would squeeze Judith’s hand when she told him how very much she loved him and how very lucky she was to have such a wonderful husband. Judith was finally able to tell Tom that his work on earth was done and he needed to go to prepare a place for her when it was her turn to come. What else can I say, I loved him so much.