A long-time Emporia businessman, W.J. “Wally” Evans, died Saturday, March 10, 2007, in Emporia Presbyterian Manor at the age of 97.
Mr. Evans was owner of Emporia Wholesale Coffee Company, which later became Evco Wholesale Food Corp.
Mr. Evans had been a businessman before moving to Emporia from Chase County.
Early in his life, he worked as a mechanic at the Ford dealership in Cottonwood Falls, then began farming with his stepfather and working part-time at a hardware store in Bazaar. He and his boss at the hardware store became partners in a hardware store in Strong City, which Evans operated. Later, they also were partners in an International Harvester franchise. When the men divided the partnerships, Evans kept the implement business. He soon purchased a Skelly service station on the corner of Highway 50 and Highway 77 in Strong City. He was the only implement dealer in Chase County during World War II, according to information from his family. After selling that business, he bought a hardware store in Cottonwood Falls, added a plumbing business and installed windmills.
In 1950, he bought a farm at Elmdale and developed a dairy business, which he sold in early 1955. In April of that year, he purchased the Emporia Wholesale Coffee Company from the Mose Neill estate. At that time, he moved his family to Emporia.
Mr. Evans was named “Man of the Week” in The Gazette on Sept. 12, 1964, for his success in expanding Emporia Wholesale Coffee Co. from a “supplier of a few foods, peanut roasting, coffee grinding and candy making to a company offering 10,000 items that included everything from big restaurant equipment to paper cups. ... The company finally expanded so much that it outgrew three buildings on Commercial Street.”
Mr. Evans that month had purchased the former Globe Union Battery Plant building, 309 Merchant St., and moved his business into its new quarters in 1965.
He was appointed to serve on the five-man Urban Renewal Agency in 1966, when city and community leaders were considering an Urban Renewal project in the downtown Emporia area.
Mr. Evans had remained interested in Chase County, where he was involved with the Flint Hills Rodeo. He was the last surviving member of the founding board of directors for the rodeo.
Wallace Jean Evans, the son of D.C. “Calvin” and Ethel Gillaspie Evans, was born Sept. 29, 1909, near Bazaar. He attended grade and high schools in Cottonwood Falls, where he lived with his grandmother, Della Manion Gillaspie, during the school week.
A complete obituary can be found on Page 2.