Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

ecause he wasn’t waiting for me. I was the flower
girl at their wedding – a very mature flower girl at
12, I believe. I look at the pictures now and I’m
looking sort of sad. Then he went off to the Pacific
during the war, and after the war they ended up
in Hawaii. So they were away; they were not at
home. And my other sister, Mary, went to Europe
with the State Department and ended up living
there. So she was away, too. So that left Bill and
Nancy. He went to college at Whitman and then
to law school at Gonzaga. So I saw him a lot more.
He and I had a very special relationship.
Hughes: So now the war is over. It’s 1950. You’re
a senior in high school. Were you asking yourself,
Sister, Barbara, and nephews, John and Dick Ludders,
in 1946. Evans family album
“What am I going to do next?” Was it clear that you wanted to study music?
Evans: Yes.
Hughes: And why Whitman College at Walla Walla instead of WSU or Gonzaga?
Evans: Well, all my siblings had gone to Whitman. But the fact was, I really couldn’t
afford Whitman (without a good scholarship). It’s a great school, but an expensive school.
Even back in the day when I was hoping to go there, it was the most expensive school
in the state. The tuition was $200 a semester, $400 a year, and that was very expensive
compared to any other school in the Northwest. And then of course the room and board
was added onto that. I applied to several schools and got scholarships everywhere I
applied, which was nice, but I chose Whitman. And even with a scholarship, I’m sure my
mother was thinking, “Oh, how are we going to do this?” But I got a music scholarship. I
had to go down and play the piano in a competition for it. But Whitman still is the same
way in helping its students. I could always work to help pay my way. They were very good
at finding employment for students who needed help. I was an assistant to professors. I
worked in the SUB (Student Union Building). I worked in a post office. I did everything.
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