Obituary of Evelyn Bell Willey

 Evelyn Bell Willey — mother, teacher, friend, sea lion trainer, golfer, Girl Scout troop leader, rattlesnake slayer — passed away March 26, 2024 of natural causes. Her daughter, Keven Ann Willey, and son-in-law, Georges Badoux, were with her. The three listened to her beloved nieces and nephews sing pre-recorded church hymns on her music box; Keven held her hand as she took her last breath. Evelyn was 96.

Born to Russell and Saloma (Boomershine) Bell on the kitchen table on the family farm in McCutchenville, Ohio, Evelyn was the youngest of four siblings and the first in her family go to college. She earned a bachelor of science in Education from Bowling Green State University in 1949 and married Richard R. Willey of Cincinnati in 1953. (They honeymooned in a tent on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, surviving a lightning storm on Point Sublime that made the hair on their arms, literally, stand on end.) They raised a daughter, Keven, with whom she shared her love of books and sports. Evelyn was divorced in 1981 and retired from Silverbell Pro Shop in Tucson in 1996.

She lived and worked in Nyak, New York; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Tucson, Arizona; and Dallas, Texas, before returning to the Old Pueblo in 2021.

As a child, Evelyn practiced her high-school speech assignments on the chickens, but disliked her milking chores, and often recalled decades later, with some bitterness, that her father sold all the milk cows the day she left for college. Evelyn was a camp counselor for the underprivileged in the Hudson River Valley, taught physical education at the University of Chicago and, later, copyedited psychological journals for the American Psychological Association in Washington.

Daughter Keven was born in 1958. Evelyn would take her in a bassinet to the Senate gallery and listen to the likes of Everett Dirksen and Estes Kefauver debate public policy. Keven was barely out of the crib when Evelyn began reading aloud to her — Cheaper by the Dozen, Old Yeller, The Secret Garden, among other books. After the family moved to Tucson in 1962 (they camped in Tucson Mountain Park for six weeks until they found a job and housing), Evelyn taught Keven to hit tennis balls, spiral a football and bat a softball. They bought a home in a remote desert area southwest of town, yet she carted Keven to years of ballet lessons and never missed her daughter’s high school volleyball games or baton-twirling performances with the Cholla High School marching band.
 

Not one to sit still, Evelyn also helped train sea lions as part of a University of Arizona electronics research project funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. She was a teacher’s aide in the Tucson Unified School District and a local hospital volunteer before taking up golf at age 40. Evelyn went on to win several state and regional golf tournaments, claiming the Randolph Women’s Golf Club Championship four times in the 1970s. She was club president and chair of the ratings and rules committees before serving as director of Junior Golf for the Women’s Golf Association of Arizona. (Phoenix Phenom Heather Farr, who went on to LPGA fame, was among her favorites.) She shot her age on a regulation course at 82. She rode her daughter’s Honda 90 motorcycle into her 50s and pedaled a bicycle around town into her 80s. Evelyn’s childhood hero was Amelia Earhart, and she once said that her greatest regret in life was not signing up for the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. A friend did just that, “but I was afraid to ask my father for permission.” Yet, Evelyn always seemed a fearless modern-day Annie Oakley to her daughter. A broad-shouldered neighbor lady, panicked over a rattlesnake in her laundry room, once called Evelyn for help. The five foot-two Evelyn single-handedly dispatched the rattler with a sharp shovel blow just behind the head. Another time, when a bullying band of burly teenaged boys ignored her admonitions against racing their motorcycles back and forth and tearing up the front property, Evelyn hauled out an old .22 pistol from the closet, loaded it, and fired it twice into the air. The boys vanished. Evelyn could be a tough taskmaster. Once, when pouting grade-schooler Keven packed a bag one morning and announced she was running away from home, Evelyn serenely waved good-bye. (Keven returned that evening, hungry and chastened by the failure of her attention-getting ploy.) As troop leader, Evelyn made her daughter complete the requirements for her Girl Scout badges twice-over to avoid charges of favoritism.

Upon moving to Dallas in 2009 to be closer to her daughter and son-in-law, Evelyn joined the First Presbyterian Church and was a regular at the women’s project and discussion groups. The first time she met then-City Manager Mary Suhm, Evelyn unabashedly admonished her against tightening library hours to balance the budget. One of Evelyn’s joys late in life was helping Georges, a retired restauranteur/chef, make his famous pâté de canard. Her second-favorite dish by Georges? Butterflied shrimp over pasta in a beurre blanc sauce.

Ever the fighter, Evelyn recovered remarkably from Covid in the summer of 2021 and a broken pelvis in September 2022. She enjoyed walking a mile in the neighborhood with her daughter several times a week. Indeed, they had walked around the block the morning before she fell ill a final time. Early the next day, her body began to fail.

Evelyn began her ascent to the heavens just after sunset. May her spirit live forever in those she loved and shaped. 

Evelyn B. Willey is survived by her daughter and son-in-law in Tucson; eight nieces and nephews in Ohio, California and Texas; 11 great-nieces and nephews in Ohio, California, Texas and Wyoming; step grandson Laurent Badoux and two step-great-grandchildren, Isabelle Badoux, 19, and Alexandre Badoux, 17, of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Evelyn’s ashes will be scattered from the top of her favorite mountain in Tucson; a private memorial is planned for May 18th.

In lieu of flowers, her family asks that you consider honoring her by giving to one of her favorite charities: Habitat for Humanity Tucson (Tax ID 94-2725100) or Arizona Friends of Talking Books (Tax ID 86-1008453).

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