James Donald Evans Sr.

James Donald Evans, Sr., ("Jimmy"), age 90, passed away at home peacefully and surrounded by loved ones on January 14, 2026, after a long illness.

Jimmy was born on May 31, 1935, in Talcott, West Virginia to the late Ross and Berta Evans. He was the seventh of eight children born from this union. His other siblings were Marion, Evelyne, Ross Merle, Vivian, Shirley, Robert, and Janice. He spent his youth in this small West Virginia community, hunting, swimming, and fishing in the Greenbriar River with family and friends. As he got older, he helped cook and serve meals at his father's catering engagements.

Jimmy graduated from Hinton High School, in Hinton West Virginia, where he played football and baseball. He then attended West Virginia State University. He later joined the U.S. Army and spent two years stationed in Germany, working at a medical facility on the army base.

After his Army service, he lived a short time in Pittsburgh, PA before moving to Cleveland. He met Vernetta Smith shortly after his arrival and they were married in 1964. Their son, James D. Evans, Jr. ("Jamie"), was born in 1969. After his wife died in 1975, Jimmy took on the role of single parent in the way he attacked everything in his life – completely and without fanfare. He lived a life marked by discipline, quiet strength, and deep loyalty to family. He passed these beliefs to his son, who cared for Jimmy until he passed.

Jimmy worked for a number of years as a Circulation Supervisor for the Cleveland Press from 1964 until their closing. He also worked for the United States Post Office and a number of other private companies. He later went back to school, taking classes in business administration, accounting, and finance at Cuyahoga Community College.

He loved genealogy and became the unofficial Evans family historian. He spent numerous hours meticulously researching, developing, and documenting the Evans family lineage. He found a lifelong friend and research partner in Alice Cannon, who shared Jimmy's passion for the subject. Encouraged by this, Jimmy also wrote several original stories of family history.

He always believed in helping others less fortunate, likely due to his Depression-era, West Virginia upbringing. In later years he sent gifts, supplies, toiletries, and donations to Native American families in South Dakota for no other reason than "they really need it."

He was a collector and trader of various artifacts and items, such as pottery, baseball cards, dolls, comic books, and coins. He loved music, with an affinity for doo-wop, blues, and bebop jazz, and had a vast record collection. He also was an avid reader and lifelong learner, spending countless hours at the Shaker Heights Public Library.

He was preceded in death by his sisters, Marion, Evelyne, Vivian, Shirley, and Janice, and his brother Ross Merle. He is survived by his brother, Robert Evans, his son and only child, James D. Evans, Jr, daughter-in-law, Zaviera, 4 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, and a circle of extended family and friends who will miss him dearly.

Though he didn't ask for much fanfare, his presence left a lasting imprint. He will be remembered not just for his service, but for the steady way he moved through the world: private, principled, and deeply loved.

All Is Well

Death is nothing at all.

I have only slipped into the next room.

I am I and you are you.

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by my old familiar name,

Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no difference in your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,

Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,

Just around the corner.

All is well.