January 30, 1937 - May 31, 2025
Beverly Diane Blake Evans was born in 1937 in Pauls Valley, OK the first child of Ragna
Elizabeth Pearce and Roger Theos Blake. She died Saturday May 31, 2025 in Enid, OK.
A funeral Mass will be held at 1pm Saturday June 14, 2025 at St. Francis Xavier Catholic
Church in Enid with Rev. Mark Mason officiating. Burial will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery
in Pauls Valley, OK. Arrangements are by Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home.
A visitation with family will be from 5PM-7PM Friday evening at the Funeral Home.
Memorials may be given to Loaves and Fishes NW Oklahoma or the PEO Ragna Blake Scholarship,
with Henninger-Hinson serving as custodian of the funds.
Beverly spent her childhood years in Pauls Valley, graduating from Pauls Valley High
School in 1955. She attended Christian College in Columbia, MO receiving an Associate
of Arts Degree and then attended Oklahoma State University and received a Bachelor of
Science Degree in 1959, majoring in Home Economics. During this time, she was a
member of Pi Beta Phi. She loved being employed by OG&E in Oklahoma City and
Shawnee as a Home Service Consultant.
As long as she could recall she loved to cook and think about foods. At age ten she tried
to make up her own muffin recipe, but when it turned out badly, she decided there was a
huge benefit to following a good recipe. Even before the days of cake mixes, she was a
very good baker and her cakes were requested during benefit bake sales for the Rainbow
Girls. She received her example to feed those who were hungry from her mother. Beverly
grew up in a home situated between Highway 19 and Highway 77 in Pauls Valley and her
mom never refused to feed anyone who stopped and asked for food. Even with five
children, Beverly's mother always found enough food for one more. Beverly and Ralph J.
Evans married 15 Oct 1960 in St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Pauls Valley.
They have been married almost 65 years. Ralph also was employed by OG&E. They have
lived in Enid since 1965.
As a member of both St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church and St. Francis Xavier
Catholic Church, Beverly served two terms on the church council at each parish. She was
a Stephen Minister and was Chairman of the Hospital Eucharistic Ministers serving all
three Enid Hospitals, for many years. She was responsible for seeing that all Catholics in
Nursing Homes and Homebound received Communion at least once a week. Beverly
volunteered at St. Mary's Hospital for 32 years; primarily on the Registration Desk, feeding
the dignity and soul of the patients she encountered. She instigated the St. Mobile Carts
and chaired that project from 15 Jan 2002 until March 2009. At that time the carts had
provided rides for over 790,000 patients, visitors and employees. She was always so
pleased with her accomplishment of recruiting thirty-four volunteers for St. Mary's
Hospital. Beverly said she never minded asking people to volunteer their time, but she
hated to ask them for money. She received the first St. Mary's Volunteer of the Year Award
in April 2004.
Her love for volunteering always involved working directly with people. She enjoyed
fundraising and during the six years their youngest son was a student at St. Paul's Lutheran
School, Beverly lead projects to raise enough money to purchase St. Paul's mini bus. She
worked with the Horn of Plenty being Chairman for two food drives and started the Food
For Life Program, which aided farmers and hunters in donating animals to provide meat to
be distributed to the Horn of Plenty's approved agencies. Beverly brought the first "Twister
Program," featuring Oklahoma's tornadoes, to Enid as a benefit for the Horn of Plenty.
After Ralph's retirement in 1987, they traveled extensively in Europe sometimes visiting
new countries and often returning to Norway to reconnect with Beverly's family. Their
state travel included discovering new horizons and reunions of the 999 Battery, Ralph's
service battery when he was in Korea.
She was a sustaining member of Junior Welfare League, delivered Mobile Meals, served
on the Calvary Cemetery Board, a member of Enid Christian Homemakers, and was a fifty
year member of PEO Chapter DB. She had a passion for researching family history
becoming a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Union
Veterans of the Civil War, and First Families of The Twin Territories. She completed the
documentation for twelve more family members to join FFTT. Beverly was proud of the
publication "Those Old Stately Gents," a family history about Ralph's family which was a
thirteen-year research and writing project self-published in 2016. Her work with Loaves
and Fishes of NW Oklahoma was her most recent involvement to help alleviate hunger.
Beverly leaves behind her husband, Ralph, of the home; daughter, Mary Ragna (Erich)
Yetter of Indiana and their children Evan, Clara and Jacob; son, Blake T. (Marisa) Evans
of California and their children Alexandra and Jordan; and son, Paul J. (Kathy) Evans of
Missouri and their children Dalton, Logan, and Mason; brothers John (Susanne) Blake of
Pauls Valley and Joe Blake of Oklahoma City; and sisters-in-law Martha and Sandie
Blake. Beverly was preceded in death by her mother, father, brothers Pearce and Steve,
and sisters-in-law Stacey and Sally.
SERVICES
Funeral Mass
Saturday, June 14, 2025
1:00 PM
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
110 N. Madison
Enid, OK 73701
