Evelyn Munro, 1914-2007
Memorial Minute
A month short of her ninety-third birthday, Evelyn Munro (March 15, 1914 – February 16, 2007) died at home under the care of her three daughters, Abigail, Rebecca and Hannah. Evelyn had been slowing down since September, experiencing increasing fatigue, lack of focus, and loss of appetite. But Evelyn never lost her strong independence, her desire to control her own life, her pride in her sharpness of mind.
To have known Evelyn is to have been in touch with some of the major events of our history. She was born and raised in New Orleans, and as a very young woman in 1934, she became involved with the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union in Mississippi, an effort for which she and her cohorts were threatened and chased by the Klan. She and her husband David were in Cuba at the beginning of the revolution, when Fidel Castro was ridding the country of the dictator Batista. When the civil war in Nigeria began, Evelyn and David and two of their girls were there, and Evelyn busied herself with organizing a small multi-racial nursery school. Back in this country, Evelyn was a strong supporter for Cesar Chavez during the organization of the United Farm Workers. Never a passive onlooker, Evelyn created publicity and organized fund raising parties for numerous causes, especially anti-war. Some of these activities were as part of our Friends Meeting, while others were undertaken as part of citizen action with Village Laguna, to keep Laguna a “village” and to save the Laguna Greenbelt.
Evelyn’s first introduction to Quakers and Quakerism most likely occurred in the mid-1930’s. She attended the University of Mississippi in Memphis where one of her professors was Mike Yarrow, a Quaker. She had a close relationship with Mike and Margaret, his wife, and was invited to live with them and care for their young children for the year while she was a student.
Another Quaker connection occurred in the summer of 1946; when she worked as a secretary for the Pacific Oaks School in Pasadena, California. Then in 1949, when the Munro family relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Dave’s study at the university, they attended the Ann Arbor Meeting. The family met Kenneth and Elise Boulding and Bob and Margaret Blood, members of that meeting. Shortly after, the family was in Chicago where they were part of the 57th Street Meeting. Evelyn’s involvement with Quakers was becoming foundational.
Evelyn and her family returned to California in 1959. In the early 1960’s, when Orange County Friends Meeting was just getting started as a Preparative Meeting in a Costa Mesa nursery school, the Munro family began to participate in our fledgling group. Their prevailing interest then and always was in peace issues and Quaker social action. Evelyn joined our meeting in 1970.
In her 60’s, Evelyn went back to college and received her degree in social ecology from UC Irvine. She worked for the university’s extension program for 11 years as an editor and writer.
Always a traveler, a lover of things French, Evelyn spent many summers living and traveling in France, as well as in other European countries. She developed skill as a photographer, gaining a reputation in Laguna, giving shows and selling prints. She studied water color painting and had a weekly French reading session in her home, always something to keep her mind busy and to be in touch with people.
People were Evelyn’s passion in life. For many years she helped every week to feed the homeless in Laguna Beach. She loved to give parties; her annual Twelfth Night party was a big event, attracting political friends, relatives, neighbors, and students who had lived with her and Dave. Just a few weeks before her death, she apologized for not having planned a party this year and promised to stage one in a month or so!
Immersion in Evelyn’s home is to be on a trip through her life. Alive with her stunning photographs, family pictures, collections of African masks, little French pitchers, books everywhere, her rooms call to memory her active mind, her passion for life, and her love for people. A full life indeed.
Source
Orange County Friends Meeting Newsletter, June 2007