Evelyn Keyes

Evelyn Keyes died at home after a brief illness on the morning of Jan. 3, 2020, in the company of her loving sister, Peggy Ann Keyes. She was 90 years old.

Evelyn, a devout Baptist and preternaturally skilled gardener, will be missed tremendously by her family. A longtime Sunday School teacher, she had a wry humor and a kind heart.

None knew Evelyn better or will miss her more than Peggy, who lived with her nearly their entire lives. The two sisters had an uncommon bond spanning decades. Please include Peggy in your prayers for Evelyn, for they were indeed inseparable.

Born in Laurel, Miss., on June 8, 1929, Evelyn was the fourth of five children born to Robert Howard Keyes Sr. and Mary Louise Lamey Keyes. As a child, she often helped her father with tasks on the family farm when he returned home from his day job at the brickyard.

Evelyn turned this can-do attitude into a lifetime of making, fixing, sewing and growing. A child of the Great Depression, she knew how to be thrifty and crafty.

Her garden was truly a place of wonder and whimsy. Each plant bed was bursting with life, wild but contained – roses, peppers, tomatoes, beans and okra all reaching for the sun. She liked to name plants after the people who gave them to her, so there was the Ramona Pepper, named for her niece, the Miss Rayburn Daisies and so on.

Evelyn loved to watch things grow, her sister recalled. That extended to children, too. Evelyn and Peggy relished spending time with their great-nephews and -niece, indulging them with gleeful trips to Chuck E. Cheese and Dairy Queen during their summertime visits.

Evelyn’s professional and religious lives were intertwined. In the early 1950s, she and Peggy both graduated from the now-shuttered Clarke College in Newton, Miss., a Baptist school. Evelyn went on to become a longtime writer, editor and advertising manager for the Baptist Record, the newsletter for the Mississippi Baptist Convention, where she worked for more than 30 years.

Previously, she served as church secretary for numerous Baptist churches, and also worked a stint as music director and secretary for the Sandersville Baptist Church.

For many years, Evelyn taught children at the Oak Forest Baptist Church in Jackson. And when she and Peggy moved to Brandon, they both sang in the choir at the Brandon Baptist Church under choir director David Prevost.

Evelyn loved to sing and can now do so in heaven with three of her siblings who preceded her in passing: Yvonne (Sissy) Cheeks, Robert (Buddy) H. Keyes and Alliene Ross. She’ll be buried in Laurel, Miss., next to her mother and father.

Evelyn is survived by family who will miss her dearly, including her sister Peggy Ann Keyes; her niece Mona (Ramona Ross) and Kyle Prufer; her niece Pamela Cheeks and great-niece Laurel Johnson; and her great-nephews Jamey and Greg Trotter and their wives, Kelsey and Kerry, and her four great-great nieces.

In lieu of flowers, please honor her memory by making a donation to support the children’s programs at Brandon Baptist Church.

Visitation will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at Ott & Lee Funeral Home in Brandon, 1360 W. Government St. The funeral service will follow from 1 to 2 p.m.

The graveside service will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Hickory Grove Cemetery in Laurel.