Evangeline Moore

Evangeline Spears Moore entered this life on December 14th, 1931, in Hallsboro NC, to the late Van and Willie Spears. Another daughter, Dorothy, followed a few years later. The girls’ upbringing was wholesome and spiritually grounded. Evangeline's talents for expressing love through food manifested around the age of ten. One day while her parents were working their crops across the road, she lit the stove and prepared an entire dinner for the family This indeed set the stage for her later vocational choice.

Evangeline attended what was then named Whiteville Negro High School where she achieved the honor of Class Valedictorian. During this time a handsome classmate, Kenneth, began courting her. After high school, Evangeline attended and graduated from North Carolina Central University. Evangeline also began her teaching career in Columbus County, North Carolina. And… she would go on to marry Kenneth Moore.

In the mid-1950’s, the young couple moved north to Washington DC and Evangeline continued her gift of taking care of children when she secured employment at Junior Village, a facility that served as the receiving or foster home for the District’s children who needed housing and other care. The couple soon had their own two children, a son, Kenneth Deryal, followed by a daughter, Vanessa Lynn.

Evangeline, adherent to her religious upbringing and beliefs, became a member of Brown Memorial AME Church where she remained a faithful member for upwards of 60 years. She regarded Brown Memorial as her second home. Among the activities she participated in over the years, she was a member of the Parsonage Aide’s Club, and she assisted in preparing bagged lunches for the needy.

Following her employment at Junior Village, Evangeline joined the DC public school system, teaching junior high school Home Economics. She taught cooking and sewing at Browne Junior High School. More fundamentally however, she shaped and molded many impressionable minds to prepare them for the world. Evangeline retired in 1993. Since she resided in her school’s jurisdiction, she often ran into her former students in her goings about. They always greeted her warmly and reflected on how they enjoyed her class, even the ones who had been little troublemakers.

Evangeline filled her retirement years with travel, gardening and many family engagements and reunions up and down the east coast. Her proudest retirement endeavor was loving and indulging her granddaughter and sidekick, Sha’dera.

Evangeline was preceded in death by her parents Van and Willie; former husband Kenneth; sister Dorothy and special nephew Jerome. She is survived by her son Kenneth Deryal; daughter Vanessa Lynn; granddaughter Sha’dera; niece Kimberly; nephew Brian; daughter-in-law Shamett; son-in-love Kelvin; and a host of other relatives and friends, including her great neighbors for 30 years, the Holt family, and her loving and supportive neighbors for the last 15 years, Robert and Audrey. God has Blessed Evangeline to live a spiritually full and rewarding life. Now she abides in the Master’s House for all of eternity.