Evelyn McPherson Hacker

Evelyn McPherson Hacker, a resident of Woodhaven Village since it first opened, went to meet her savior Jesus on 1 Nov. 2024 from her Woodhaven residence.

Evelyn was born at home in rural Cobb County, GA, to Augustus A. McPherson and Mertice Lee Dunn McPherson in 1926. She grew up with two older brothers and a younger sister. While life was not extravagant, she said that they always had enough to eat growing up on the family farm, unlike some families that were not so lucky during the Depression. While Evelyn's father farmed, her mother sold eggs and churned milk to make butter to make extra money for the girls to take piano lessons and other "extras". 

Evelyn had a choice of high schools - she could attend Sprayberry High and ride the bus, or she could attend Marietta High School, which was in town. She chose to attend Marietta; and in order to do so, she lived in town during the week with an aunt and uncle, Ed McPherson, her father's brother, and his wife Mary Lou and daughter Marianne. On weekends. Evelyn went home to her family on Johnsons Ferry Road; and her sister Sarah remembers that Evelyn always brought her something. After graduating, Evelyn went to Draughon’s Business College in Atlanta, GA, from 1942-43 and then worked in Atlanta for the War Assets Administration, the National Safety Council, and Atlanta Gas & Light.

During high school Evelyn made a trip to South Carolina to visit another aunt and uncle, Andrew Duncan and his wife Pearl McPherson Duncan. Through them, she met the man she would someday marry and travel with to distant places - Alex Hacker, a young man from Tennessee who was in the Army. 

It was the beginning of WW II. Alex visited Evelyn in Georgia and, eventually proposed; she accepted; and they wrote throughout the war. When he came home, he took his 30 days of leave and they married on December 1, 1945.

Alex made the Army his career; and as an Army officer’s wife, Evelyn traveled and lived in many locales. This included many U.S. assignments as well as Ankara, Turkey where they lived for two years with their three girls.

After Alex's retirement from the Army the couple made their home in Corpus Christi, TX, where in the earlier years Evelyn was employed at the Flour Bluff School District and the Corpus Christi Army Depot. For many years she also was active in Community Bible Study, the Protestant Chapel at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, and the Retired Officers Wives Group.

Friends and family remember Evelyn as a woman who “lived and spread her faith” and who helped others deepen their faith in Jesus. After moving to Conroe and until she died, Evelyn attended a family weekly Bible Study with her three daughters in an online meeting, which let her see her daughters’ faces together once a week.

Evelyn loved flowers and always had them growing wherever they lived. She had an eye for design and colors and was an expert seamstress, making school clothes, holiday costumes, prom and wedding dresses, as well as window drapes, and upholstering furniture. She was much in demand as a Bridge card partner, and was an excellent cook and hostess. She is remembered by her daughters and nieces as “the epitome of a Southern lady.”

She is survived by three daughters, Alexis (Bruce) Booker, Auburn, WA; Maria Pape, Willis, TX; Diedre (Don) Jarvis, Conroe, TX; one grand-daughter, Tracie Pape (Vincent) Shutt, TX; three grandsons, Brian Pape, TX, and Daniel Jarvis (Katie),TX, and Nathan Jarvis (Liesl), AR,; one sister, Sarah Foster, Marietta, GA; Sarah’s children Susan Kersey, GA, and Stephen Foster (Joni), TX; eight great-grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. In addition to her husband Alex, she was preceded in death by her parents; brothers Horace A. McPherson and L.M. McPherson, GA; and two sons-in-law, Tom D. Pape, TX, and Joel F. Scholz, WA.

Services are Monday, Nov. 18 at:

• 9:45 a.m. at the Houston National Cemetery, 
• 2 pm at Woodhaven Senior Living in Conroe.

In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to Salvation Army or Insight for Living as an expression of sympathy.