HOPE--Rayma Juanita Evans passed away peacefully in Texarkana on Sunday, June 14, 2009, at the age of 94. She was born in the Old Liberty Community in Hempstead County, on October 14, 1914, the eldest child of Elmer Ray and Audrey McClanahan Calhoon.

She graduated from Columbus High School and lived most of her adult life in Hope, where she was a faithful member of Hope’s First Assembly of God. At First Assembly, she served as the loving teacher of the lower elementary Sunday School class and served as the enthusiastic pianist of the Men’s Bible Class for many years.

 She instilled her joy in music-making in each of her four daughters and delighted in playing her piano every minute she could spare. She was a wonderful storyteller, entertaining family and friends with tales of her days growing up in rural Arkansas in an era before cars and electricity were commonplace. She was preceded in death by her husband of 45 years, Carl Robert Evans, and her siblings, Willie Madge Evans and Eurie Calhoon.

Survivors include her sister, Louise Butler Tarpley, of Hope, and her  daughters and sons-in-law, June and Joe Hopson, of Houston, Texas, Linda and Nathan Williams, of Pearland, Texas, Gail and Jerry Otwell, of Harrison, and Brenda and James Works, of Texarkana; her grandchildren, Tina Livingston, Greg Williams, Elisa Canamar, Brad Otwell, Kriste Brockaway, Lara Caballero, and Christ Works; her great-grandchildren, James and Claire Livingston, Micah and Aaron Williams, Alex and Anthony Canamar, Ethan, Sydney, and Joshua Brockaway, and Sarah Dodd and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be at Herndon-Pharr Funeral Home in Hope from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16. The funeral service will be held Wednesday, June 17, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. in the chapel of Herndon-Pharr Funeral Home with the Rev. B. J. Willhite officiating. Burial will be follow at Hope Memory Gardens. Memorials may be made to a charity of the donors choice.