Evlyn L Turner

Evlyn Lura Reasoner Turner January 6, 1919 - March 29, 2021 Evlyn was positively brilliant and insatiably curious. To say that she loved adventure and lifelong learning is surely an understatement. She was a voracious reader, enjoying a variety of genres. Of all the books she loved, she read and reread the Mitford series. It gave her the peace and joy she yearned for in her final months. But, her story is so much more than that… she was a world traveler and lived for some time in post WWII Europe with her husband, who was in the military. She shared her love of travel with her daughters, by adventuring with them through Europe, Mexico, and Canada, so they could learn to appreciate other cultures, and people too. At the young age of late 60s and early 70s she earned degrees in Religious studies, Anthropology, South American studies, and Spanish. She was an exchange student in her 70s. In fact, imagine her host family’s surprise when they were expecting a college age kid for a semester in Merida, Mexico and instead hosted an ABUELA (grandma). She always got a kick out of rock hunting at the ocean or even on Table Mountain near Paradise, CA seeking crystals like hidden treasures, and that was something fun, free, and exciting that everybody in the family could enjoy. Her zeal for exploring and adventuring revealed itself in her love of hiking… traversing Mount Lassen on a multitude of trails, and sometimes wandering along old railroad trestles and retired tracks. She lived on her own until she was 98, and maintained a perfect driving record until she broke a hip and had to give it up and her incredibly antiquated (68) Chevy Impala station wagon…much to her dismay. She deeply loved her church family from both St Thomas More in Paradise, and St Francis in Sherwood, and so enjoyed enduring fellowship with them. They were always adopting her and visa versa for dinners and festivities. Although, COVID restrictions took some of the wind out of her sails, she still had the opportunity to doorway visit with her friends at her apartments. She did look forward to life getting back to normal. So, now she is on the biggest and best adventure that she could imagine. Her remaining family are her daughters Jeanette Smith (Luther), and Michele Woolley (Steve) and abundant grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her son has preceded her in The Great Adventure.