Mary answered the door and led me to the den where he sat in his favorite leather easy chair. His wheel chair was close by reminding you of his Parkinson’s disease and two falls that resulted in three hip surgeries and 3 months in a nursing home recovering and going thru rehab.

Wayne Evans had always been a strong, athletic man who led an active life. He was a leader and a fighter and this was not going to stop him. 

Born in 1932 in Newport, Tennessee, Evans’ dad was a Southern Baptist Minister, but passed away when Wayne was two years old. Wayne never knew his dad but for years had heard stories of his fire and brimstone way of preaching. His mom worked in the school cafeteria and also for Shockley Bros. Everyone in town worked for Shockley. They were a vegetable canning company that ran Newport.  They had a whistle on their main building that sounded when vegetables were cooked and were ready for canning. You could hear the whistle all over town, and when it sounded you would stop whatever you were doing and report to the factory to work. 

Wayne had 2 sisters and one brother. All are gone now except for an older sister, Mary Louise Ferguson, who lives up in Chesapeake, Virginia.

It seems our fondest memories of our younger days start with our years in high school. Wayne was one of the most popular students in his class. He was a tall, good looking young man that turned many a girls’ eye. He proudly showed me his well-aged year book from his senior year where he was voted most athletic and most popular. 

He played on the varsity basketball team, was quarterback on the varsity football team and even boxed Golden Gloves for a semester or two. As good a football player as he was, the team lost every game his senior year. Wayne laughed when he remembers the final game of the season. It was the last quarter, seconds to go, his team had the ball, and they were down by one point. Wayne was faced with pass, hand off, or run.  He saw an opening, and elected to go for it. The students were shouting encouragement and were ecstatic about the prospect of a win. With an eye on the goal line, he made a final dive, only to come up inches short of the touchdown....a perfect season! No wins!

Though his grades were just mediocre, he was offered a scholarship to play football at Milligan College. He accepted. Still a party boy, he rarely studied and eventually flunked out. 

What to do, what to do . . . 

He heard about a summer job with Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois. Wayne and two other buddies applied, were hired, and spent the summer working there. Like many men his age, he was lost. In 1952 a Navy recruiter got hold of him and the next thing Wayne knew he had signed up for a 4-year hitch in service to his country with the U.S. Navy. 

He was sent to Jacksonville, Florida to be evaluated where it was determined that he be sent to Airplane Mechanic’s school in Memphis. Half way through the school, powers to be decided Wayne couldn’t change a bolt with two wrenches.  For the next two years, he was assigned the position of “orderly” on a transport plane carrying troops from Hawaii to Japan, Guam, and Midway. 

When not flying, he would check in on the base in the early morning, and then spend the rest of the day at the beach, or his favorite beer joint named “The Beer Joint”. He says of himself, “Back then, I was pretty rotten.”

At the end of his 4 years, he decided to come on home. Getting an honorable discharge, he was ready for whatever lie ahead of him. He applied to East Tenn. State University, and was accepted. He said he went with every intention of doing some serious studying, but just couldn’t settle down and hit the books. After a year, he quit. 

Needing a job, he returned to Newport. When he’d arrived, he heard of a job in Knoxville with the Telephone Company and he hit the road with the little money he had, and most all the clothes he owned. Arriving at the interview, the hiring manager looked Wayne over and told him, “We don’t hire bums.” 

Wayne replied, “I’m here to work”, and he was hired. Thirty-two years later he retired from Bell South. 

Wayne started out as a Lineman climbing poles, then became an installer In Newport. Getting better at what he was doing, he applied as a Switchman in the telephone company’s central office in Huntsville. He became a level one manager, got married, and 14 years later got divorced. He then transferred to Mobile as a 2nd level manager. Unfortunately, a need for him came up and he was sent back to the Tri-Cities (Tenn.) as Central Office Manager. He stayed for 6 years before he found an opening back in Mobile. 

Moving south he moved into an apartment complex where his next door neighbor just happened to be a beautiful lady named Mary. Mary was teaching school at the time and wasn’t interested in Wayne’s foolishness. It took two years of sweet talking and chocolates (she wasn’t impressed with his fancy Thunderbird) before she finally gave in and went out with him. In 1980 they got married.  While in Mobile, he bought a building lot in Gulf Shores over on East 1st Street. With the help of a couple friends and a skill saw, they built a cabin that he and Mary still own. Eventually, they bought another lot in Gulf Shores. 

Wayne retired and they moved to the beach. While living on East 1st, Wayne built a very nice and comfortable home on the second lot on a golf course. Wayne enjoyed fishing, but after retiring and being introduced to golf, that sport became his passion. He spent spare time golfing at every opportunity with two friends, Tim Sullivan and Jack Nicholson. Lots of practice and a competitive spirit eventually made Wayne a scratch golfer.

In 1988 he noticed a slight tremor in his hands and his head, and a little uncertainty in his walking. An appointment with a neurosurgeon confirmed his suspicion that his problem was Parkinson’s. Determined not to let it get him down, he continued doing the things he loved to do. His wife, Mary was and is supportive, and Wayne did well till he tripped, fell, and broke his hip last year.

This past year has been a rough one. At 82, the bones don’t heal so quickly. Wayne’s attitude is wonderful. He says he plans to heal. He plans to get stronger, and he plans to play golf again. 

He and Mary still go out occasionally to a late lunch or dinner and they still love to entertain -- though not as often and to smaller groups than years past.

Wayne’s a remarkable man. Always a smile, always a friendly ‘hello’, always a wave when you drive past his home and see him there on his lawn mower. How lucky we ON THE ISLAND are to have him with us, and how lucky I am to be able to call him my friend.