Ophelia Kinnard Evans

Born July 3, 1924, in Jack County, Texas, Ophelia Kinnard Evans went to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on February 15, 2023, at the age of ninety-eight years. Growing up on an eighty-six-acre farm, she discovered at a young age that she loved school more than farm chores (though she did her share of those). In school, she found her niche and graduated as class salutatorian at age 16 (some say that she should have been the valedictorian but was discriminated against based on gender).

During WWII she served her country, testing the Norden M-9 bombsights for B-24 bombers, and after the war moved to West Texas to work for Gulf Oil Corporation. It was at that time that she met and, two years later, married Gerald Evans. Over their sixty-five-plus years of married life, she faithfully loved her family in countless practical ways. She also tirelessly served her church (First Baptist Church of Monahans), giving special attention and time to the church’s missionary work along the Rio Grande River.

Remarkably, she translated an entire Vacation Bible School curriculum into Spanish for summer trips to Mulato, Mexico, advancing her language skills as she prepared the daily lessons. She devoted herself to community service, too, and was awarded the honor of First Lady of Monahans in 1976. An avid birder she logged three-hundred plus different species over the more than twenty years of watching (cleaning her room after her death we found no less than twenty-five well-read and thoroughly-marked books on every type of bird imaginable). She spent countless hours creating beautiful artistic works to decorate her home.

Her Christian faith was the fundamental and defining characteristic of her life. She endured in this commitment throughout the whole of her adult life, volunteering countless hours to the work of her local church, and financially supporting numerous missionary and Bible organizations with a global focus. Her family was aware of the daily time she gave to the spiritual disciplines of the faith. She read the Bible an estimated 35+ times yearly and prayed daily for her family and the Lord’s work. With the Psalmist she would confess that “the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup … the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (16:5-6).

She is survived by two children, a son, David Evans, and a daughter, Elizabeth (Liz) Evans Miller; by five grandchildren, Luke Evans and wife Marianne, Andrew Evans and wife Michelle, Robert Evans and wife Adrianne, Emily Miller Johnson and husband Micah, and Jonathan Miller and wife Trista; by twelve great grandchildren, Nathaniel Evans, Ainsley Evans, Benjamin Evans, Declan Johnson, Evelyn Johnson, Huxley Miller, Hazel Miller, Nox Miller, Charlotte Evans, Gibson Evans, Ella Evans, and Ofelia Miller (her namesake), and numerous nephews, nieces, …

She was preceded in death by her parents, George Martin and Littie Sophronia Kinnard, and by her husband Gerald Evans. All of her siblings’ given names began with the letter “O”, and she was the last of the “O”s to die. They were Opal Easter, Orie Kinnard, Ollie Damron, Oma Hefner, O. C. Kinnard, Odessa Hodge and Olan (Cotton) Kinnard. One additional brother died in childhood.

A Memorial Service will be held at Northwest Community Church in San Antonio on Saturday, February 18, at 10:00 am. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Park in Odessa, Texas on Wednesday, February 22, at 12:00 noon. Any memorials given in her honor may be given to the American Bible Society.