Evelyn Leota Brake Mullins
Evelyn Leota Brake Mullins of Marietta (Reno) passed away on September 22, 2015 at Marietta Memorial Hospital. She was born at home in South Parkersburg November 17, 1932, a daughter of Merle G. and Edna Byrdie Harold Brake.
When Evelyn was about three years old her family moved to a farm on Washington Bottom, where she and her 2 sisters (Orvella Brake Maley and Grace Brake McDougal) grew up. The farm didn’t have electricity, gas, or an indoor bathroom. She enjoyed all the animals and making hay (except when visitors caught her in the hay wagon with her hair in pin curls and wrapped in a bandana). She attended Washington Methodist Church and was baptized in the Ohio River.
Evelyn attended local schools (Lubeck Elementary and Washington Junior High). Once at Parkersburg High School she took journalism and worked on the school newspaper. After Evelyn’s graduation in 1950 she worked for a year at the Parkersburg News as Assistant Society Editor.
During her junior year she met Bill Mullins, her future husband, on the school bus when he squirted her in the face with a water pistol. Bill was a senior and joined the U.S. Air Force after his graduation. They married June 9, 1951 and resided at Sampson AF Base, Geneva, NY, where their first son was born. Evelyn and Bill later had a daughter born in Sacramento, CA, two daughters born in Washington, D.C., and a son born in Tokyo, Japan.
While in Washington, D. C., Evelyn was hired by the F.B.I. to perform clerical work. At subsequent transfers to Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas and Maine, she worked in the Base Exchange System (BX) and the schools. After her husband retired from the service in 1971, she worked at Marietta Memorial Hospital for twelve years, until her retirement. They lived in Norwood for several years until all their children were settled and then sold their home and bought a Coachman travel trailer. They criss-crossed the United States, Mexico and Canada for the next 15 years. They left the road in 1998 and settled in Reno. After setting up housekeeping, Evelyn turned her attention to genealogy and continued to document both her and her husband’s roots. She was an avid O.S.U. football fan and played multi-deck solitaire on her computer.
Evelyn is survived by her husband, Bill, one son and three daughters: William C. (Karen) Mullins, Jr. of Marietta, Teresa Dianne Mullins of Marietta, Sharon Kay (Richard) Waters of Reno, Suzanne Gail (Robert) DeLapp of Lexington, NC; 3 grandchildren: Christopher William (Kelly) Mullins, Sarah Ilia Mullins, Daniel Louis (Kaylei) Hart, and her sister Grace Sophia McDougle of Belpre. She was preceded in death by her parents, son Gerald Wayne Mullins and sister Orvella Irene Maley.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday (Sept. 26) at 10:00am at McClure-Schafer-Lankford Funeral Home with Reverend Paul Morton officiating. Interment will follow in Riverview Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home on Friday evening from 4 until 8. Messages of sympathy may be sent to www.Lankfordfh.com.