Joseph Evans

Waynesville, NC-Reverend J. Claude Evans, age 90, died on Friday, September 7, 2007, in Asheville NC. He was born in Anderson SC on February 5, 1917 and was the son of the late Joseph Manley and Mary Ligon Evans. He was preceded in death by two brothers and two sisters. He graduated from Wofford College and Duke Divinity School. A member of the South Carolina Methodist Conference, he served as associate pastor for Washington Street Methodist Church in Columbia SC and pastor at McCormick, SC, Methodist Church before joining the Navy and serving as a chaplain in the South Pacific during WWII. After that he was the minister for Methodist churches in Walhalla (Saint Lukes) and Clemson, SC, and then edited the South Carolina Methodist Advocate from 1952-57. In 1957 he accepted a position as Chaplain to the University at Southern Methodist University in Dallas TX which he held until 1982. In 1975, he and his wife of 67 years, Maxilla, built a home in Waynesville where they lived full time from 1982 until 2003 when they moved to Asheville. In Waynesville, Claude worked as a family counselor and a columnist for the Waynesville Mountaineer. He also starred in the HART Theater production of Foxfire in 1992. In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children: Sara Evans (Charles Dayton), Claude Jr. (Jill Petzall Evans), Robert (Lisa Sedaris Evans), John, and two grandchildren: Craig Evans Boyte and Jae Lee Ramirez as well as numerous nephews and nieces. Memorial services will be held at First United Methodist Church, Waynesville, NC, at 2 pm on Friday, September 14. Visitation will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to The Development Office, Wofford College, 429 N. Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29303-3663.