EVELYN LOVELESS HARPER - OBITUARY

Evelyn Irene Loveless Harper passed from this earth on April 18, 2016. She was the last surviving member of her generation of the Loveless family.
Evelyn lived a full, dignified and fiercely independent life. She was a private woman who always tried to do the right thing. We will miss her very much.

She was born June 4, 1925, the ninth of ten children, on a small, red-dirt cotton farm in North Alabama near Pettusville and the Tennessee line. Her father, Hassie Mitchell Loveless died 18 months later, leaving her mother, Edna Adams Loveless to make a farm-living and raise Evelyn and her nine brothers and sisters through the difficult years of the Great Depression.

Evelyn was beautiful--doted on by her brothers and sisters. She did well in school and excelled in sports, serving as the captain of the Elkmont High School basketball team. In 1943, she was the first of her brothers and sisters to graduate from high school.

At the end of World War II, she struck out on her own, walking two miles from the family farm to Veto, Alabama, where she boarded the slow train to the then growing north Alabama industrial town of Decatur. She found work as a quality inspector at the Alabama Hosiery Mill and shared an apartment with her friend, Beatrix. 

A number of years later, she attended secretarial school in her spare time, becoming proficient in typing and shorthand. After graduation, Evelyn went to work with Mutual Savings Life Insurance. She was a consummate professional, committed to her craft and to hard work. She ultimately became executive assistant to the vice president of sales. She worked for Mutual Savings from 1957 until she retired in 1990.

In 1947, she met the love of her life, Richard Earl Harper. Earl was as handsome as Evelyn was beautiful. He rode a Harley Davidson motorcycle and was the best auto mechanic in north Alabama. He had been born on a farm near Athens and also desired to live a more modern life. 

Earl proposed to Evelyn on their first date. A year later, on May 28, 1948, Earl and Evelyn eloped and were married in Iuka, Mississippi ( in order to avoid the wait for an Alabama blood test!). They honeymooned at exotic Niagara Falls, New York.

In 1963, Evelyn and Earl gladly agreed to raise her six year old nephew, Keith Loveless. They raised him to adulthood as their only child, with much love and encouragement.

In 1979, Evelyn and Earl built their dream house on two acres in Southwest Decatur. Earl lived there until his death in 1992. Evelyn continued to live there, on her own, until her death. She especially enjoyed tending her large yard. Two years ago, at the age of 88, she drove her old Buick to Tanner to pick up grass sod and returned to unload and plant it herself in her beloved yard.
 
Evelyn was a devoted member of Ninth Street United Methodist Church for over 60 years. She attended Bible class and services almost every Sunday until her health faded recently. She proudly supported the church financially as best she could.

Evelyn is survived by Keith Loveless, the nephew she raised, and his family, wife, Beth Rogers Loveless and daughters, Katherine Mae Loveless and Hannah Harper Loveless of Seattle, Washington. She is also survived by many other nephews and nieces, particularly her dear nephew, Wayne Loveless and his wife, Annette Loveless of Elkmont, who lovingly attended to her in her decline. Mrs. Harper was preceded in death by her mother, Edna Adams Loveless; and brothers and sisters, Christine, Malcolm, Herbert, Grace, Lucy, Carl, Donald, MacAroy and Hassie. 
 
Visitation will be at Roselawn Funeral Home in Decatur from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday April 23, followed by a service led by Jeff Seller from Ninth Street United Methodist Church at 2:30 p.m. Evelyn will be buried beside her husband, Earl, at 4 p.m. in the Athens City Cemetery.