February 10, 1932 - August 13, 2025
Ralph Jackson Evans was born in 1932 in Oklahoma City, the fifth son of Roscoe Conklin Evans, Sr. and Mary Alice Hays, and died Wednesday, August 13, 2025, in Enid. A funeral Mass will be at 11:00, Monday, August 18, 2025 in St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Enid with Rev. Mark Mason officiating. Burial will follow in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. Arrangements are by Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home.
Ralph was raised by his mother in the home at 38th and May in Oklahoma City, which was Old Route US 66. He walked on a dirt road to school when he attended Sequoyah Elementary and later attended Taft Junior High School. In 10th grade, mornings began with milking the cow, delivering milk, butter, or eggs to a neighbor and then hitchhiking to Central High School, graduating from Central in 1949. Ralph’s first paying job was as a linotype operator for the Times-Journal Print Shop in downtown Oklahoma City. He worked evenings setting type for telephone directories, printing the proof sheets of the galleys of type, and getting them to the Post Office by the 10:30 P.M. deadline. Getting off work after dark, his transportation was a three-mile bicycle ride to and from home. Deadlines were never his forte. Ralph lasted less than a week at that job. What a disaster! He then worked for Channel 4 WKY-TV as a messenger, or you might call him a gofer. In the Fall of 1950, he took on huge responsibilities. During OU football games at Norman, besides stringing cable, at the beginning of each home game, Ralph got to take the microphone out to the coin toss and then sit on the sidelines with the microphone to get crowd noise.
Ralph was drafted into the United States Army in August 1951, during the Korean Conflict serving in the 999 Armored Field Artillery. This was a firing unit north of the 38th parallel. With his service completed, he was honorably discharged in July 1953. With the help of the GI Bill, Ralph was able to attend Oklahoma University and graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering in January 1959. He immediately accepted a job with Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company in the Sales Department in Oklahoma City. On October 15,1960 he married Beverly Diane Blake in St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Pauls Valley and they lived in Ada. He served as Sales Engineer until June 1962 when he was transferred to Oklahoma City with a promotion to Residential Sales Supervisor. In January 1965, Beverly and Ralph were transferred to Enid, and Ralph became the Sales Supervisor and in 1976 he became the Northern Regional Manager.
Ralph was President and Campaign Chairman of the Enid United Way and President of the Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the Enid Kiwanis Club for 45 years, and serving as President; a licensed member of the State of Oklahoma Registered Engineers; served on the Board of Directors of the Hedges Community Speech and Hearing Center; was a member of the Oklahoma Safety Council; and was the President of McKinley Elementary Parent Teachers Association, playing Santa for many years when his children were students at McKinley Elementary School.
In October 1987 he retired from OG&E as Northern Region Manager, covering the Enid, Alva, and Woodward districts. In his retirement, Ralph loved to play golf. He played with everyone who was available and only in later years had a small group of close friends he played with every week. He also served the community in many capacities. He was a driver of St. Mary’s Saint Mobile Cart, a Eucharistic Minister taking Communion to the homebound throughout the county, active in a Garfield County jail ministry sponsored by the Catholic Church, and for many years took Communion to patients in all three Enid hospitals. He was faithful to his work at Our Daily Bread.
Surviving Ralph are his daughter, Mary Ragna Evans Yetter and husband Erich, of Anderson, IN and their children Evan and wife, Alexandra and children Luciana and Fiora; Clara and husband, Nick, Jacob and wife, Audrey; son, Blake T. Evans and wife Marisa, of Studio City, CA and their children Alexandra and Jordan; and son, Paul Evans and wife Kathy, of Lebanon, MO and their children Dalton, Logan, and Mason; brothers-in-law, John Blake (Susanne), and Joe Blake, and sister-in-law, Sandie Blake. Preceding him in death were his mother and father, his wife of 64 years, Beverly Blake Evans, four brothers and sisters-in-law: T. Norman Evans (Opal), Jay Evans (Noma), Roscoe Evans (Jackie), and Kenneth Evans (Elna), brothers-in-law Pearce and Steve Blake, and sisters-in-law Stacey and Sally Blake. Memorials may be made to Our Daily Bread with Henninger-Hinson
