Evelyn Mae Harper

Evelyn Mae Van Hise was born March 4, 1928 to Henry Van Hise and Edith Long in the town of Wall, South Dakota. She was the youngest of four children: a sister, Pauline, her brother, James, who died at the age of six, and another sister, Geraldine. The family soon moved to Chemult, Oregon during the Great Depression. Evelyn tells of her early childhood growing up in a lumber mill camp cabin nearby in Mowitch where her father was the foreman in the planer mill. In Chemult, the family owned a small motel. As a little girl, she waited tables in the motel cafe where her mother was manager and cook. The family then moved to Medford, Oregon during Evelyn's teen years. She graduated from Medford High School. Her father was the millwright in a lumber mill for many years. While grocery shopping with her mother, Evelyn met and became friendly with the young man at the cash register, Loyal Galen Harper. They were married June 16, 1945 in Medford, Oregon while Loyal was on a two week leave from the Navy at the end of the second world war. They built their own first home with a few hand tools and a little help from some of Loyal's brothers. They repeated this process of building a new home, living in it for only two or three years, and then selling at a good profit, several times. Loyal's day job was a dental lab technician. The family moved to Grants Pass, Oregon where he owned his own dental lab. In later years, they owned a jewelry store in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Evelyn will be remembered for her skillet fried chicken, potato salad, and deep dish apple pie. She became an expert wedding cake decorator. She was an excellent seamstress. She taught everyone how to water-ski. She was a school bus driver, a deer hunter, and helped Loyal raise a few cows for the dinner table. Evelyn loved genealogical research and amassed several notebooks full of records and family information. Evelyn was very happy to be a wife and homemaker. She was so proud of her four sons and their wives, Steve and Terri, Brian and Shauna, Tim and Beth, and Brent and Nancy. Her husband Loyal passed away rather suddenly in 2005. Evelyn continued in Grants Pass for a short time, then moved to Boise, Idaho, then to West Jordan, Utah, then to Corvallis, Oregon, and finally to Lebanon, Oregon. She has 23 grandchildren and an ever-increasing number of descendants. Evelyn passed away at home on September 9, 2025. She felt the most important thing in her life in addition to her family was her testimony of Jesus Christ and her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She served in many positions in the church over the years and was a powerful support to her husband as he served in leadership positions. Evelyn and Loyal served a short church mission in and around Spokane, Washington. Her favorite service in the church was when she worked in the Boise Idaho Temple. She said more than once the most important date in her life was June 26, 1957 when she and Loyal and her boys were “sealed” to be an eternal family in the Los Angeles California Temple. Her son Tim preceded her in death in 2023. She is now together with her husband and all others of her eternal family who have previously passed.

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Evelyn Mae Harper

March 4, 1928 - September 9, 2025