Evans, Helen, 1992 November 7, Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Helen (Means) Evans was born on August 16, 1905, in Merrill, Wisconsin. She is one of five children: three sisters and one brother. Her father was born in Maine and her mother was born in Norway. She lived in Edgar, Wisconsin, from the age of seven until she left to attend college. She attended Edgar grade school and high school and then received her bachelor's degree in education from Carroll College. In 1937, she married Floyd Evans. The couple had no children. Ms. Evans taught grade school, first in Milwaukee, and then following the war, she taught in Minocqua. She and her husband operated a resort in the Lake Tomahawk area during the summer months and the hunting season in the early fall. Ms. Evans was raised as a Presbyterian, but now attends the Methodist church. Her husband, Floyd died in 1966. Ms. Evans now makes her home in Lake Tomahawk.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Evans begins by describing her activities around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about her concerns for a former student who was on one of the ships attacked. She then describes the changes the war brought on their resort in Lake Tomahawk and the adjustments she and her husband had to make, including rationing. Ms. Evans discusses the effects of the war on her students and on her teaching. She then talks more specifically about events that occurred at the summer resort in Lake Tomahawk with the arrival of guests including cooking and housekeeping workloads. She then recalls what it was like to live alone in Milwaukee during the school year. Following the war, Ms. Evans took a teaching position in Minocqua, and she describes this community in the postwar period.