Evelyn passed on to join the Lord on July 1st, 1987.
In the mid 1930’s, in Hollister, California, Evelyn Catherine Jones was living with her Uncle Ben and Aunt Edna Loofbourrow. Uncle Ben and Grand (Ben’s mother) had brought Evelyn out from Enid, Oklahoma when she was 13 years old. Uncle Ben and Aunt Edna had two sons, Dwight and Perry, who were both living at home at the time. They lived on a chicken farm (with pop. 12,000 chickens).
Uncle Ben asked Evelyn to live, for a time, with Grandmother Mary Catherine Loofbourrow who lived nearby in downtown Hollister. Evelyn ended up staying with her maternal great-grandmother (thus the reason why everyone called her Grand) for about three to four months. Evelyn cooked, cleaned, and kept everything up in that single-story, white house that she lived in with Grand for most of the summer.
This lovely 90+ year old lady had lead a most interesting life, so the evenings were spent sitting on the porch and talking about Grand’s life. Grand’s memory was sharp, and she would relate to Evelyn about all the young men that she went with, and about her life in the times of the Civil War. Grand’s husband was in the Union Army, Sep 1861 through 5 Nov 1864.
Toward the end of the summer Grand fell in the yard. Evelyn got her up and into the house after which she called Uncle Ben. Within one week Grand’s hearing, vision, and other faculties slipped away, as did her spirit at the last, leaving sons Ben, Irven, John, Joe, and daughter Ella.
The time at Uncle Ben & Aunt Edna’s was during her high school years. She and her cousin Perry went to the same high school and were in the same grade. Perry remembers that Evelyn was very popular with male population at school. She got a job working in town as a live-in housekeeper for a large family, cooking three meals a day (which included three separate breakfast times for different members of the family).
Evelyn met Weldon Mickel during WW-II. With the help of her cousins Perry and Dwight, they were married on Jones St. in San Francisco and they had a short honeymoon at the Jones hotel also on Jones St. Fitting since her last name was Jones. (Perry Loofbourrow has a great story about this wedding event – an audio interview that Ron Snow has).
Both Evelyn and Weldon became pastors and missionaries. They even travelled to Australia in the 1950s. They pastored at various locations, each years at a time: Ontario, Cresent City, Oxnard, Hemet, Pear Blossom, and other cities. At the time of her death she was pastor of the Pear Blossom Four Square Church.
