Winston Gill Evans Jr.

Winston Gill Evans Jr., (March 11, 1903, Shelbyville, Tennessee - January 13, 1973, Nashville, Tennessee) was a Tennessean who converted to the Bahá'í Faith and became known for his outreach to Christian leaders, a long list of speaking engagements over decades, pioneering in the Caribbean, and encouraging Hand of the Cause Ṭaráẓu’lláh Samandarí on a tour in the US with favorable publicity from a number of syndicated and indepentent journalists in 1967.

Raised in a context of privilege and high society Evans himself became a millionaire but lost his wealth in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 while serving as a senior bank officer in Nashville. He lived in modest situations while keeping up a visible social profile almost another decade when he chanced to hear a Bahá'í asking for a ride in late 1936. This was Marion Little who was organizing a series of multi-racial integrated meetings for the US Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly amidst the Jim Crow segregation of the land. He joined the religion within a year and was soon elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Nashville and served on regional teaching committees including Tennessee some years. In 1939 he gave his first known public talk for the religion and began to travel more widely and giving occasional talks for the religion. After briefly being drafted during WWII he was discharged because of his age and he then moved to Los Angeles where he began an occasional series of talks advertised in the California Eagle, a black newspaper of Los Angeles, as well as in the Los Angeles Times. From around 1945 he began to devote himself to public talks with advertising while growing a correspondence with Christian thinkers - an effort he was encouraged by Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice. Among these was a project to engage the Christian World Council of Churches convention in Evanston, Illinois, in 1954 which led to many more than a thousand attendees coming to programs at the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette. He traveled from Alaska to the Caribbean and most of the states of the US, plus alittle in Canadian places as well, and attended the first Bahá'í World Congress in London in 1963 while a pioneer in Grenada, plus recording audio talks used on radio programs and publishing pamphlets. He also appeared on one television program among people walking from the House of Worship. Two authors on Christian-Bahá'í topics postuhumously dedicated some of their books to him.

Biography

Early life

Winston Evans House
Classical Revival style Winston Evans(Sr) House at 306 East Franklin Street, Shelbyville, Tennessee, in 2014, built around 1900, historic designation Nov 27, 1989
Born	March 11, 1903
Died	January 13, 1973 (aged 69)
Works

Winston Givens Evans Jr., was born March 11, 1903, in Shelbyville, Tennessee, to Tennesseans Winston G. Evans Sr. and Carrie Frierson Evans. Their home, the home Evans Jr grew up in, has become a historic landmark. Both his parents had been seen in the coverage of higher society events. His father had earned a certificate in botony, and graduated from medical school in 1890. The Evans were of English descent after arriving in Virginia before 1821, and Evans Sr began work at a bank in 1890. He married Carrie Payne Frierson in 1894. The Evans were Presbyterian. Evans Sr had posted a legal action on some financial matters in 1901, and by 1908 Evans Sr was vice-president at a bank. His father had opened a bank in the area many years earlier.

In 1908 Mrs. Evans was mentioned aiding a traveling show of Punch and Judy when it arrived in Shelbyville noting her husband was an alum of the University of the South at Sewanee. By 1910 the family was living on a farm with Evans' sister Mary F., brother Robert P., and mother in law Mollie Frierson. There had been some Bahá'í activity in the area as early as 1911. A family company was founded in 1912, along with news of kin dying followed by shifting business relationships. Things looked good in September 1914 when Evans Sr bought a car, but he died in late November, listed as a retired banker and dying of heart disease and pneumonia. The following March there was a fire at the house which destroyed much of the home.

In 1917 Evans sister's wedding was noted again in high society circles, while another kin died. That year Evans attended the Sewanee Military Academy as it was called then and visiting home on occasion. His mother was visible at a Red Cross fund raiser during WWI.

Evans' mother remarried in 1919, the same year Evans graduated from the academy.

The summer of 1920 the vote for 19th amendment to constitution for women to vote was secured in Shelbyville. Another Bahá'í contact Albert Vail came through after returning from pilgrimage giving talks at meetings. That winter Evans was visible socializing with the Phi Delta Theta sorority and directly entered the Episcopalian 4 yr college the University of the South at Sewanee, earning three scholarship medals and a Bachelor of Arts in 1923, and was known for his athelticism in the senior class. Though the timings are not clear, he got a position in a local bank, transferred to the National City Bank in New York city, before it was named Wall Street.

In August 1928 he was visible returning to America on the RMS Mauretania. He was sent back to Tennessee as a senior representative of the bank and opened an office in Nashville by May 1929. "The Wall Street Journal was my bible" he later said.

Bankruptcy and finding the Bahá'í Faith

There he suffered the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and lost all his millions in wealth. He was devastated economically and spiritually and began to inquire of every Christian denomination.

The US Census of April 10, 1930, has him a boarder in Nashville, listed as a salesman for an investment bank who had been employed the most recent work day. In 1931, pictured in the newspaper, he founded another company, and was noted as the local tennis champ, visible visiting and still in investments. He was a visible socialite at club events, and attended a Sewanee alumni meeting in November 1933. In 1934 he was among those who contributed to an alumni fundraiser for "Willie Six", longtime African American sports assistant of the Sewannee athletic department. In 1935 he continued to be visible at socialite events across 1935-6, during which time he was a lodger at an apartment building on West End Avenue in Nashville.

In December 1936 progress began for Bahá'í meetings to be held at the Nashville War Memorial Building by the US Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly in early January 1937 including Mrs. Raymond D. Little, Alfred E. Lunt, Mountfort Mills, Horace Holly, George Latimer and Mrs. Stewart French attending. Mrs. Little arranged the meeting for the institution. These meetings were advanced in the circumstances of Jim Crow laws and policies of Tennessee enacted between 1866 and 1955, including six requiring school segregation, four which outlawed miscegenation and marriages, the establishment of the Tennessee "One Drop" rule, three which segregated railroads, two requiring segregation for public accommodations like hotels, and one on public transportation; the last recorded lynching in Tennessee identified to date was in 1940 when an African American attempted to register to vote and establish a NAACP chapter. In this atmosphere Evans overheard a lady in Nashville asking for a ride in December 1936 and offered Marion Little a ride during which he remembered hearing of the Bahá'í Faith and assisting a racially integrated meeting in Nashville. He felt spiritually aided by the "dazzling young woman" who "gave me a new insight into the purpose of man and his relationship to God." Evans hosted a reception honoring Little a few days later. In the cluster of meetings that took place the mostly interracial character of the meetings itself was controversial. W. E. B. Du Bois wrote an article on a Hermitage Hotel hosted Bahá'í meeting of January 11 in an October 30 piece published in the Pittsburgh Courier claiming great offense that the Bahá'ís had allowed a segregated meeting, to which individuals and the national assembly responded including mentions that Du Bois had gotten some of the facts wrong - there had been 6 meetings some of which were public and integrated despite the segregation policy of the hotel and most of the private meetings had also been integrated - only one of the private meetings had not been integrated though even this one had been debated by the Bahá'ís themselves.

Louise Caswell gave a talk for a series at the homes in Nashville and inaugurated on 25th anniversary of arrival of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America. She also spoke at the Hermitage Hotel on Bahá'í history and newspaper coverage mentioned the marriage of Mary Maxwell to Shoghi Effendi. Horace Holley and Mountford Mills returned to the area in early May. Louise Caswell gave more talks and showed slides, followed by the return of Little to give talks and arranging for another meeting of the national assembly in October. Some time that year Evans joined the religion.

In June 1938 there was a Bahá'í advertisement for a prayer book, and Evans was one of the alumni attending the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity meeting at Sewanee in August.

Tours

Regional service of the South

By August 1938 he had joined the regional Bahá'í teaching committee for Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, and then by October Dorothy Beecher Baker came to Nashville to give a talk. There was a January 1939 exhibit at a Nashville library on the Bahá'í calendar by the Assembly. A couple early 1939 handwritten signed letters from Evans to Mountfort Mills exist in which he is hoping an unnamed personal project would greatly advance the promulgation of the religion though he is waiting on funding. Evans continued to serve on the regional teaching committee in 1939-40. Evans first known public talk came in early November and it was noted he was chair of the Nashville Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly. Evans again addressed the vesper service at the WPA meeting a couple days later.

Evans was still a lodger staying at an apartment building on West End Ave. in Nashville in 1940 listed as a "sale promoter" in advertising and had been employed 40 hrs over the previous week. And he continued to serve on the regional committee of the Bahá'ís including eastern Tennessee for 1940-41. In August Evans gave his first talk beyond Nashville so far identified when he spoke at a meeting in Knoxville. Meanwhile the marriage of Evans brother took place in later October. Baker returned to Nashville in November,

There is a gap in mention of Evans in 1941 when America entered World War II but by 1942 Evans was a wholesale manager, and Baker had returned to Nashville to give a talk in February. Evans again served on the regional committee of the Bahá'ís including Tennessee for 1942-3, and was briefly drafted September 14, 1942, serving as a private Warrant Officer, but was soon released because of age. Still he was recognized as an Sewanee alumni serving in WWII albeit noted as discharged. By November Evans had been of assistance securing newspaper articles in many states of the South but which ones were are not delineated.

The West and wider travels

In June 1943, Evans gave his first talk on the religion beyond Tennessee when he spoke in Reno, Nevada, and then went on in July to speak at the seasonal western Bahá'í school then in Geyserville. In 1944 he attended a California Institute during which he reached out to William E. Hocking and Dimitri Marionaoff (who did join the Faith.) Evans told the story of the 1944 engagement on the Faith with Dimitri Marianoff which was published posthumously and includes learning and sharing the story of Táhirih along with some letters Evans and Marianoff exchanged. Evans began an intermittent series of talks at the same time - beginning in April 1944 advertised in the California Eagle, a black newspaper of Los Angeles, as well as in the Los Angeles Times briefly. In May he was back in similar coverage of other talks he gave on the religion which continued through much of the summer and then again into the winter.

In February 1945 Evans gave talk at the Los Angeles Bahá'í Center, but was in DC and places in nearby Maryland and Virginia giving several talks by March.

Generally he earned his keep with haphazard jobs as a traveling salesman including selling yogurt before it was popular and maintained an "offbeat" diet. His car was pilled with Baha'i materials.

By September he was back in Los Angeles giving a talk, and again in November. His next talk was in Los Angeles in March, 1946, and continued to do so with similar coverage again through the summer. In August he read the funeral prayer service for Orcella Rexford in Inglewood Park Cemetery. In September Evans talks continued in Los Angeles, and after a break continued through the spring and summer. After a few months break he was visible again giving a talk in November, now noted as a member of the Los Angeles Spiritual Assembly, and then again in December.

In January, 1948, Evans began another year's service of intermittent talks. The next one came in April followed by his first mention of a talk of his at the 40th national convention (in which he quotes a Christian Century article.)

The next known appearance comes in January 1949 in a suburb of Los Angeles. That year he served on the Western States regional committee, and returned to coverage in the California Eagle in June. There was a brief quote of him on the Bahá'í national fund being in a bit of a crisis in June, gave a talk in Los Angeles area in October, attended a Founders' Day at the Sewanee University of the South event, and was back giving talks in mid-November in the Los Angeles area. In March 1950 he was in Phoenix, Arizona, and in April he was in Little Rock, Arkansas, giving public talks along with Baker.

Tennessee, Kentucky, and New England

From 1951 Evans embarked on a return to Nashville and talks for the religion from the winter of 1950-1 and into the spring. Evans' mention at the national convention spoke about cautioning new Bahá'ís to not get bogged down in local matters. In September he appeared in Louisville, Kentucky, across advertisements at first lasting a week, but then continued into October, before again becoming visible back in Nashville in January, 1952. However he was right back to Louisville, before going on again to the national convention and this time speaking at the Bahá'í House of Worship too.

In the summer of 1952 he spoke at a Green Acre Bahá'í School season's classes. It is known that Evans also began a correspondence with Paul Hutchinson, then editor of The Christian Century, by now, until the year before his death. In 1953 Evans gave talks in Chattanooga across a month of advertising, was in Postsmouth, New Hampshire, in July, and Hackensack, New Jersey, in August. During a by-election for the national assembly because of the pioneer plans of three of its members Evans was among the 19 people who got as many or more votes as himself.

In January 1954 Evans returned and gave a talk in Nashville, which was commented on from the national circulating African American newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier. Amidst these events came the news Baker had died. She had encouraged him to interview Henry C. Link a psychologiest most widely known for his book The Return to Religion and he continued contacting and began a letter correspondence with other leaders including Hendrik Van Loon, Aldous Huxley, Allan Hunter, Lloyd C. Douglass, and Frank Laubach.

Another by-election for the national assembly came before the end of the year and Evans was among 13 people with equal or higher vote counts. By February 1954 Evans was in Birmingham, Alabama, for a talk, and was pictured as a member of the Nashville assembly when it incorporated in April.

Wilmette and beyond

A committee of the World Council of Churches had been appointed a few years before to define "Christian Hope" but resulted in confusion among liberal Christians stating there was no hope unless and until Christ returned - which attracted the attention of the Bahá'ís. This controversy was highlighted during newspaper coverage of the meeting: "The controversy over the kingdom of God demonstrated that the unity of the 163 denominations from 48 countries … is more apparent than real.… The proposed assembly statement… was just as ambiguous about the second coming of Christ as the original document." Margaret McCormick and Winston Evans presented at the late April Bahá'í national convention about the approaching World Council of Churches meeting and were then asked to explore how to present the religion to the members of the Council.

Bahá'í House of Worship

They would use George Townshend's book Christ's Promise Fulfilled and a selection from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's Some Answered Question on Christian subjects. Also included were other pamphlets. A National Assembly letter from before the event was published after: "In this Assembly they must come to grips with such questions as the "Return", the "Second Coming", the "End of the World", the "Day of Judgement", and the "Establishment of the Father's Kingdom on Earth.… (they) are divided on these questions…." It encouraged Bahá'ís to study Some Answered Questions, and share quotes from it to the public, and a booklet to aide in doing so was published as well as others and suggested tape recordings of the Bahá'í point of view about these could be used in radio broadcasts and advertisements would be made in the Christian Century and local newspapers. The Council had free periods for delegates: August 22 and 26. A number of advertising and invitation initiatives were undertaken and some 1600 individuals identified associated with the Council meeting did attend events at the Bahá'í Temple in Wilmette. Extra hours of service were added and the Temple's hours of being lit at night were also extended. One of the guides was a former Lutheran minister. Some 2200 people filled the Temple for the service on August 22, and Horace Holley spoke on August 26 at another service at the Temple addressing the Council attendees, and his talk was published as a pamphlet.

Evans was called a representative of the Faith at the Evanston World Council of Churches meeting by the Bahá'ís, personally conveyed 75 attendees to the House of Worship, and led one of the tours of the Temple. This was later held up as a key example of his work, with encouragement from Shoghi Effendi, to reach prominent Christian leaders, and at that time to invite them to the House of Worship.

In January 1965 the Rochester New York Spiritual Assembly hosted a World Religion Day observance with a talk by Evans.

Tennessee and Central states

April 1955 coverage of Evans opens with his talks in Nashville, and publicity about the Nashville assembly being multi-racial, but before the end of the month he was also in Evansville, Indiana, In May he was back in Nashville giving talks, and spoke at the national convention before also giving a talk in South Bend, Indiana, as well as a regional conference.

In March 1956 he was back in Nashville, and again attended the national convention. In October he attended the third state conference in North Carolina, and was on to Little Rock, Arkansas, before returning to Nashville where he also was heard on radio WLAC. In early November Evans gave a talk in Nashville, but by mid-November Evans had recorded a talk that was aired in Fairbanks, Alaska, on radio KFAR, on radio KTMS in Arkansas, and on radio KTIM in San Rafael, CA. There were 100 recordings made by October. A pamphlet based on Evans' radio talk was published by the Bahá'ís entitled Lord of the New Age.

By the end of the year he had resigned from the Nashville Assembly and was to embark on a tour of Haiti, Dominican Republic, Caracuas, Trinidad and the Winward Islands, the beginning of several Caribbean tours.

Widening travels

Near the end of January, 1957, he was back in Nashville, played a recording of a performance piece on the history of the Bábí-Bahá'í history. In February he spoke in Miami, Florida, and then was scheduled ahead to speak to the Andover Newton Theological School in Boston. In March he traveled to St. Thomas Island. In April he was back and a delegate to the national convention from Nashville.

Evans spoke at a class of Dr. George Mayhew of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, of uncertain date, at which later Bahá'í Thom Thompson attended. Thompson, recalling these events years later, followed up the presentation of the religion and became a Bahá'í in 1957. Evans received a letter from Shoghi Effendi, dated May 31, 1957 saying "This is the kind of work the Baha’is should concentrate on, because one soul of great capacity can set a continent ablaze."

In early June Evans spoke in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in July speaking at Green Acre. In October he spoke at a home and at a Palmer Chiropractor school in Davenport, Iowa, and then was in neighboring Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and Iowa City, before going on to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After memorials for the death of Shoghi Effendi, Evans arrived for talks in Kansas City.

By the 1950s the Nashville Bahá'í community included the later national poet-laurette Robert Hayden, then a professor at Fisk University, and his wife Erma who was a concert pianist. John Hatcher recognized Evans as a key influence on his religiosity calling him "a dignified man then in his late forties … was then, and continued to be, a central figure utilized by the national Bahá'í community to make contact with religious and secular scholars to inform them about the Bahá'í Faith. He would often recount for me his encounters with figures such as Paul Tillich, Billy Graham, and others."

In later November he was in nearby Oklahoma City giving talks amidst this tour, and then on to Springfield, Missouri, and Webster Groves near St. Louis.

His first appearance in 1958 comes in later February in New Orleans, followed soon by San Antonio, Texas, and then Fort Worth in early March. By late March he was in Greeley, Colorado, and in April Evans' publications were still available, while he went on to Butte, Montana, to speak for the religion. Around these he was in Anderson, Indiana, in early and again in late April speaking as part of a broad series on religions. Sometime that spring Evans was also speaking at the University of New Mexico in Albaquerque aiding their college club's activities. For the earlier summer season at Green Acre Evans was on the faculty, followed by contributing to the Louhelen Bahá'í School's program late in the summer.

January, 1959, opens with the return of Evans to Anderson, Indiana, though he also was heard in one of this recorded talks over radio KFAR in Fairbanks, Alaska. Publicity in nearby Indianapolis also noted his talk for World Religion Day. In April Evans was back in Nashville for a society club meeting, and in late May was in Missouri again proclaiming for the religion. One of Evans talks was also heard in British Columbia for the observance of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh. That summer he returned to the Louhelen School. That December he closed out the year's public talks in Augusta, Georgia.

January, 1960, opened with one of his talks over radio KFAR in Fairbanks for World Religion Day. In later February came the news that Evans was headed to the West Indies. By May one of his talks was heard in California, and British Columbia.

Caribbean and New England

His biography in Bahá'í World notes he:"pioneered 'thirty three months out of fifty' from 1960-1964 to Genada, British West Indies … began reaching prominent people after Grenada …." He took the pioneering post of Dorothy and Frank Baker were going to when she died in 1953. He served as a public information officer for 1960-1964 for the region. A number of Bahá'ís have named him as important in their journeys to conversion:Clifton Joseph, Jeffery Lewis, Unfortunately, though newspapers exist, are not reachable digitally.

In mid-May 1962 Evans was back in America in Jackson, Michigan, speaking of his pioneer work. In July and August he went back and forth between Nashua, New Hampshire, and Brattleboro, Vermont,

He was able to contact and make friends with Christian leaders in the mid-later 1960s including Nels Ferré and Gabriel Vahanian.

North Carolina, Florida, and Michigan

From September he did much the same between Greensboro, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh, North Carolina. And he added appearing in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before returning for more presentations in North Carolina. By mid-October he was in Chicago and cities in the area doing similar work, and by earlier November he got over to Detroit.

1963 opens with mention of Evans mother who had died in February. In March Evans was in a coordinated effort of several talks in Ann Arbor, Michigan, along with area publicity and invitations sent out to ministers. That summer Evans returned to Nashua, and then in later July was in Green Acre programs.

Evans next visibility was a series of talks in Nashville from late September into early October. though appearing also in Decatur, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, before going on to Atlanta by November. He returned and closed out the year back in Nashville to another coordinated set of appearances.

Back to Greneda

He spent some days in Greneda circa 1963-4 and was noted in the story of Shirley Howard and her parents. From there he had attended the Bahá'í World Congress held in London in April-May, 1963. It was probably about this time in Britain that Wendi Momen recalled encountering Evan's saying that her appreciation of the religion's "interest in UN", as she says it, was "cemented by a visit of Winston Evans to my school some time in the early 1960s…."

Meanwhile he was back to Greneda - a picture of the Grenada community with Evans was published in the Baha'i News in June, 1964. Evans was in Keene, New Hampshire, and then Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in November, 1964.

North East to South West

1965 begins with mention of Evans in Rochester, New York, and other nearby cities in January and April. Then he was in Hartford, Connecticut, in April, then in May he was in Holland, Michigan, In 1965 Evans wrote the pamphlet Power to Renew the World that was published.

In January, 1966, Evans was back in Holland, Michigan. He then appeared in DeKalb, Illinois, as part of a panel of religionists, and by February Evans was in Arizona in a few cities into March, before going to Amarillo, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, in April. By May he was in Wellesley, Massachusettes, talking on the college campus there. In August Evans was in Columbus, Ohio. A regional conference was held in late May at which plans and activities were discussed into which Evans contributed speaking of his recent work on college campuses. By early September Evans was back in Columbus, Ohio, and then on to Madison, Wisconsin, by the middle of the month. By October he was in Edwardsville, Illinois, and then on to Davenport, and Sioux City, Iowa, to Nebraska in November, before going on to Lubbock, Texas by late November.

By mid-December he was in Flagstaff, Arizona, and then back and forth between El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, across January, 1967. Late in January he returned to Phoenix, and was on to San Diego, California, for early February, before returning to Tucson in late February into early March. Evans was photographed in Los Angeles talking with Leroy Ioas who died in July 1965. By mid-March Evans was in Dallas and San Antonio, before going on to a campaign of events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the end of March. In April he was in Little Rock, Arkansas, and actually visited in Fairbanks in early July.

A summary review of Green Acre noted Evans among many who had been there to serve, and the election of the first regional national assembly of many of the Carribean Islands recalled Evans contributions there. And the Bahá'í magazine World Order included an article co-authored by Evans and Marzieh Gail published in the summer of 1967 largely about Christian expectations of the Return of Jesus, and the Bahá'í view.

By July he was back in the continental US in Seattle, and over to Vancouver, before going on to Salt Lake City. After mid-November he was back in Reno, Nevada, and on to Colorado Springs in August. He closed out the year in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in late November.

Meanwhile a plan/dream of Evans bore fruit: "It was Evans 'dream, pre-planned for years', for a North American tour by Hand of the Cause Ṭaráẓu’lláh Samandarí which came to be in late 1967.… resulting on major articles by George W. Cornell, David Needed and Dan Thrapp."

Further travels

Late December 1967 had the first winter seasonal school of the Texas area for the Bahá'ís which was held at the Lake Bridgeport Methodist camp near Bridgeport, Texas, for some 43 students. From there Evans went on in February 1968 to speak in El Paso. In March Evans spoke in Alburquerque, then was in Austin by mid-March, and then Little Rock by mid-April.

Evans attended the national convention part of which was recorded in the CBS series Light Unto My Feet episode name "And His Name Shall Be One". Marzieh Gail calls him "best seen" in that filming. He appears when the announcer says "The Bahá'í teachings says: accept all the great prophets gone before - we destroy no other creeds and leave all doors open." Later in May Evans spoke at the Temple, and again in early June. Evans wrote the forward of a pamphlet published in 1968. And then he attended another World Council of Churches conference this time in Uppsala, Sweden. In an open-air worship, the then WCC general secretary Eugene Carson Blake spoke to the thousands gathered, appealing to send material aid to the starving Biafra people. While there Evans also took in other meetings in Switzerland. Evans was visible again in mid-August in Brattleboro, and then Evans was in British Columbia in late October/early November. In later November Evans spoke in Salem, Oregon, and then in Coos Bay then into December. In mid-December Evans was back and forth between in Fresno, California, and Sacramento where he said that he also used historian Charles Beard ideas to supplement the Bahá'í approach. The back and forth continued into January, 1969. He then was in Roseville, before going on back to Albuquerque, and then back to Austin, Texas, in March. He then spent Naw Ruz among Bahá'ís in Fayetteville, Arkansas, offering a summary of teachings.

There was a break of mention until October when he gave a series of talks in Alton, Illinois, in a series of meetings in the area starting with a talk with Monticello College, as it was called, and on the Helen Walters Show spending the entire 45 minute herself interviewing Evans rather than the usual format. Walters had had a show related to the Faith in 1967. This show was held October 9 at 9:30am on WOKZ, (as it was known then.) From there Evans went to the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville where the Bahá'ís used parts of the recent Ebony magazine coverage from 1965. Lastly, Bahá'í books were donated to libraries in the area. Then Evans was on to Mansfield, Ohio, in November.

Later days and legacy

An article in January 1970 in Los Angeles called him a missionary though he said Bahá'ís don't use the word, and had been a Bahá'í for 32 years. Evans read an early book on the religion by Thornton Chase in the 1930s. A couple days later he was back in Albuquerque. By late February he was in Florida starting in Fort Myers, Orlando, and then Tallahassee in March. In April he was in Kokomo, Indiana, for about a week.

Then there is a break in appearances until January, 1971, in Nashville. In October the Presbyterians honored Evan's grandfather, Nathan Peyton Evans.

The next mention of Evans came in December 1972 when he was in a long list of alumni contributors.

He was in ill health his last years and died January 13, 1973, survived by a sister Mrs. Harry Goelitz and two brothers Robert and N. Payton and nieces, and buried at his birth place in nearby Shelbyville, with the funeral using selections he had made himself. He was buried in Willow Mount Cemetery. Telegrams sent:

Deeply grieved passing Winston Evans devoted servant Blessed Beauty indefatigable teacher homefront and pioneer Caribbean area. His dedicated efffort Cause Bahá'u'lláh with eminent Christian scholars clergy constitute outstanding contributions annals Faith American community. Express sympathy family assure praying Shrines progress his soul Kingdoms God. - Universal House of Justice, January 15, 1973

Grieved passing Winston Evans destinguished untiring teacher Faith Bahá'u'lláh. Salutary effects his singelinded efforts reconcile differeences among religions will shine as candle to his memory. Please convey our condolences his bereaved relatives. - National Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States, January 14, 1973

An posthumous article of Evans' was published in World Order magazine in the winter of 1972-73 entitled A Russian Response in which he tells the story of the 1944 engagement on the Faith with Dimitri Marianoff.

His efforts were called "record-breaking" in his efforts to bring the religion to the attention of people. He presented at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Union Theological Seminar, the Santa Barbara Center for Study of Democratic Institutions, the University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Wellesley, Rutgers, Temple, Mt. Holyoke, and Venderbilt. Thom Thompson says he continued this promulgation until his death in 1973, that there was no theologia, Christian writer or teacher of note who had not learned of Baha'u'llah" and dedicated his book to Evans among others. Evans was called "a born teacher" and was known for often quoting Martha Root: “I always try to find God’s first choice”, “You can’t call your shots”, “Never change a winning combination”, “All are His servants”, “God doeth whatsoever He willith” “the last, irretrievable chance”

Writer Gary Matthews dedicated his book The Challenge of Bahá'u'lláh on Bahá'í-Christian topics to Evans, as did writer Thom Thompson in his book along the same lines.

Further reading

• Unfortunately some Tennessee newspaper collections are available only inside Tennessee. See Tennesssee Electronic Library - Free resources for Tennesseans