Louise Evans, 79, a former home health caregiver and longtime South Side resident, died Tuesday, Feb. 29, at home in Chicago. Mrs. Evans, a native of Clarksdale, Miss., was one of the early participants in the Great Migration, the mass movement of African-Americans who left the South in search of better economic and social opportunities in the North. Mrs. Evans and her family first left the Mississippi Delta in the mid-1920s. Both of her parents had died by the time she was 9 and she returned to Clarksdale, where she lived until she was a teenager. In Clarksdale, she developed a passion for the blues music that was taking root, meeting well-known musicians such as Muddy Waters. Mrs. Evans returned to Chicago in the late 1930s. “I remember her being a little surprised when she realized that Muddy Waters, this fellow she knew from back home, had become famous,” said her granddaughter, Sabrina Miller, a Chicago Tribune reporter. “She thought he was `not bad’ but that there were so many others who were equally good or better.” Mrs. Evans settled in Chicago permanently and worked more than 20 years in sales with Spiegel. Although she quit school to work, Mrs. Evans later earned a general equivalency diploma. “Education was extremely important to her,” Miller said. “She was quite proud that she lived to see her child and grandchildren earn college degrees.” Before retiring in the early 1990s, Mrs. Evans was a home health caregiver with Community Care Systems in Chicago. In addition to her granddaughter, survivors include a daughter, Elizabeth Miller; another granddaughter, Dena Thurmond; a great-grandson, DeVante Sherod; a sister, Rose Wade; and more than 150 nieces and nephews. A wake will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, followed by an 11 a.m. funeral, at Leak and Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago.
