- Date Of Birth: August 20, 1922
- Date Of Death: April 20, 2019
- State: Florida
Evelyn Rigdon Mayes, 96, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 20, 2019, at Cape Canaveral Hospital.
Born Evelyn Christine Rigdon on August 20, 1922 in Laurel, MS, the daughter of Walter Gurcie Rigdon and Bertha Viola Robinson.
At sixteen, her family moved to Klamath County, OR, from Laurel, MS, settling in Gilchrist where she was valedictorian of the first graduating class from Gilchrist High School. She was the guest speaker at the 60th anniversary of the school.
She enjoyed a pen pal relationship to over 30 soldiers during World War II. Evelyn met Melvin Mayes while he was stationed at Marine Barracks, Klamath Falls, OR, at the Crescent Lake Convalescent Camp Govo after returning from the Pacific Theatre of Operations in WWII. On December 8, 1945, after his discharge, they were married in Gilchrist.
After Melvin’s father’s death in 1951 the family returned to Burlington and Graham, NC. As community volunteer, she headed fund drives such as Cerebral Palsy and taught local and district Bible studies for the Methodist Woman’s Society.
Evelyn was charter member, past president, and historian of the Cocoa Beach Women’s Golf Association organized in 1968. She was past president of LaCita Women’s Golf Association; active on all Cocoa Beach City Golf Committees, having served as a Chairman of the original Golf committee in 1972, and avid supporter of the Cocoa Beach Country Club and its members, always encouraging new members as they learned the game of golf. She attended numerous golf tournaments through the years and continued watching golf even up to her last days.
Evelyn was energetic, intelligent, religious, musical, and generous.
Her many hobbies included oil painting, golf activities, writing family stories and poetry, sewing, genealogy, love of the space program, and writing the annual Christmas letter to family and friends.
Preceded in death by parents, Walter Gurcie Rigdon and Bertha Viola Robinson; sister, Alice Louise Keown; brother; Walter Gurcie “Gene” Rigdon, Jr; nephew, Larry “Bud” Keown, Jr; son, Brent Stephen Mayes, and husband, Melvin S. Mayes, Jr. Evelyn is survived by her son, Wayne Martin Mayes (Dawn), Fort Mill, SC; daughter, Marcia Lynne Mayes Munce (David), Cape Canaveral, FL; daughter-in-law, Debbie, Hawthorne, FL; grandchildren, Brett (Stephanie) Lake Stevens, WA; Brent, Jr., Hawthorne, FL, Gretchen, Marysville, WA; step grandchildren, Chris (Amanda), Ryan, and Pagan Dye, Fort Mill, SC; great grandchildren, Connor and Annabelle Mayes, Lake Stevens, WA; Abby, Michael, Jackson, and Preston Dye, Fort Mill, SC; niece, Mary Anne Keown, Cresent, OR; and numerous extended relatives in Oregon.
