Evelyn Ekburg b. March 1918 – d.September 1974
Evelyn’s came into being in March 29, 1918 at Ochsner’s (#2 ?) Hospital in Durango Colorado. Evelyn grew to a teenager in La Plata City attending the La Plata school as well as the May Day school, some five miles down the canyon from La Plata City. During her early Durango high school days she boarded in a communal house near the Free Methodist Church in Durango. Charlie and Beda moved their family to Durango a short time later.
Evelyn was the only girl of the three sibs, occupying the middle age slot between two brothers. She always referred to her cousin Elvira, who was sixteen years her elder, as “Sis”. Besides Evelyn’s mom, Elvira was her female role-model and mentor; very little lore remains about Evelyn’s childhood years.
We have very few early-life anecdotes for Evelyn. We know from her pictures she she had an interest in Mesa Verde National Park and because of her frequency of visits she befriended a park ranger. She also spent time in Colorado Springs to be close to her brother Edwin when he was stationed in Fort Carson, Colorado during WWII.
Evelyn was probably responsible for many of the photographs coming out of La Plata City in the 1930’s and ’40’s. We will credit the ones we know she created. We have many she took of the Spanish Trail’s Fiesta parade held in Durango, Colorado every August.
Evelyn was a casehardened, hardcore mountain girl who was full of adventure. In her youth (date unknown) she contracted rheumatic fever that left her with chronic health issues that ultimately lead to her death in September of 1974. Evelyn passed at the very young age of 56 from a failed heart valve damaged by that fever. Had it not been for that issue, I know she would still be with us looking forward to her 100th birthday party!
Evelyn married a fellow named Staller in 19??, but that marriage was short-lived and childless. The army shipped him to an airborne fighting unit in France in the early-mid ’40’s and after his return, their relationship languished, they divorced and he moved on to places unknown.
Later, she married a Bayfield man, William Asher (12/01/1951) with whom she would spend the remainder of her life and produce a son named Alan Leroy. They lived in the Ekburg family house on Third Ave., in Durango for the remainder of their years.
Evelyn was my aunt (father’s sister) and a huge source of my knowledge about the Ekburg family; the resident historian, so to speak; I wish I had paid more attention to her lectures.
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All images copyright Ekburg Family Archive.
