S1c Paul Anthony Evans

Paul Anthony Evans was born Aug. 22, 1919 in Fillmore, Illinois. His mother, Lydia Understahl Evans, was a homemaker and his father, Morgan Evans Sr., was a farmer until the family lost it during the Great Depression. Then he became a lath carpenter.

The son, one of eight children, graduated from the local high school in 1938 and then served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program.

He returned home, but with jobs still hard to find, Mr. Evans left Fillmore, population 458, to enlist in the Navy on Dec. 27, 1939.

He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars organized a memorial service in his honor at the Fillmore Methodist church in late December.

Four of his brothers served during World War II. Art and Kenneth enlisted in 1939 and served as combat engineers in the Army. They deployed to Anchorage and Nome, Alaska. James was a Destroyer sailor in the Pacific theater and Morgan Jr was a plank owner on the U.S.S. Iowa which deployed to the Atlantic and the Pacific theaters. James and Morgan Jr enlisted in the Navy to avenge the death of their brother.

There is a cenotaph for Paul Evans at Glendale Cemetery in Fillmore.

Sources: The Decatur (Illinois) Herald; the State Journal-Register of Springfield, Illinois; Census; Navy muster rolls. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.