Evelyn Arlene Taylor1,2 
F, (2 March 1914 - 22 January 2003)
Evelyn Arlene Taylor was born on 2 March 1914 at Cogan House Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.3,4,2 She was the daughter of Merton Leroy Taylor and Minnie Catherine Miller.1,2 Evelyn Arlene Taylor married, at age 27, Clair Edward Updegraff, age 30, son of Clarence Ezra Updegraff and Blanche F. Leedy, on Friday, 3 October 1941 at Nisbet, Susquehanna Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.1,2 Evelyn Arlene Taylor died on 22 January 2003 at Williamsport Hospital, Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, at age 88 years, 10 months and 20 days.3,2
She was widowed at age 45 by the death of Clair on 1 January 1960.5,6,2 As of circa 2000, Evelyn Arlene Taylor lived at 872 Rural Avenue, Williamsport, Pennsylvania.1 Her obituary was published on 24 January 2003 in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, printed in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Her obituary stated:
Evelyn Taylor Updegraff, 88, of 872 Rural Ave., died Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003, at Williamsport Hospital. She was born March 1, 1914, in Cogan House during what came to be known as the Billy Sunday Blizzard, when the famous evangelist preached at a nearby tent meeting while a foot of snow blanketed the area. Evelyn has been taking the world by storm ever since.
Evelyn Arlene was the fourth of twelve children, and the last surviving child of Merton Taylor and Minnie Miller. She is preceded in death by her husband, Claire E. Updegraff, of Williamsport, and is survived by four children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Rebecca Tunnell lives in Malvern, Pa. and Karen Sharer in Cherry Hill, N.J., while her sons, Mark and Marshall Updegraff are both local residents.
Her grandson, Douglas Tunnell and his wife and three daughters, Megan, Sarah and Madison, live in Phoenixville, Pa. Christopher Sharer resides in Ann Arbor, Mich., Anne Tunnell in West Chester, Mark Claire Updegraff of Rochester, N.Y., and Sarah Updegraff is attending Oberlin College in Ohio. Kathryn is still at home with Mark and Roberta. Amanda, Samantha and Claire are the daughters of Marshall and Susan Updegraff.
Evelyn Updegraff was a member of Lycoming Presbyterian Church. She served as elder, and participated in the women s association, church school and the general life of the church. She was an active member of Northumberland Presbyterian Women s Association, the Salvation Army Auxiliary, and volunteered at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. For many years, she also served on the planning committee for the area Christian Women s Club monthly luncheons.
Evelyn participated in the highway cleanup program, and often volunteered for special social and educational projects. Among her various accomplishments was her personally making more than 3,000 hospital gowns for the Presbyterian Medical Benevolence Fund, and these garments have been utilized in developing countries throughout the world.
She enjoyed sorting and mending clothing for the Salvation Army Thrift Store, but was always on the lookout for special items to fill boxes for her pet mission the projects. Evelyn collected layette items for local women's ministries and for mission projects globally. She sent hundreds of winter hats and mittens to an ecumenical Christian agency serving Appalachia in W.Va.
Over the years, Evelyn collected much-needed supplies for Rwanda, Romania, Bosnia and Honduras, and recycled bed sheets into hundreds of roller bandages for hospitals in other developing countries. Her favorite and longest running mission enterprise, however, was International Book Project. For more than 40 years, Evelyn gathered good text books from area schools, churches and friends to send to the Philippines, Marshall Islands, Thailand, Nigeria, India, Grenada, Ghana, West Africa, Poland, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea among others. The thank-you messages from schools throughout the world are among her treasures.
Evelyn was a lifelong gardener, and faithfully tended the flower beds she planted at Lycoming Presbyterian Church, as well as at home. She will be remembered by countless people for the hand-picked bouquets she took to friends and neighbors in the hospital or recovering at home, and for providing for other needs before they could be vocalized.
Quilting was her passion, and over the years she constructed many of the prize-winning entries in area shows. With each meticulously executed stitch, Evelyn pieced together fabric and spirit to make priceless heirlooms for her children and grandchildren. Many of these creations were auctioned to provide funds for the mission projects she loved best.
Evelyn Updegraff retired from teaching third grade at Nisbet Elementary in 1974 from the South Williamsport Area School District. She signed on with Volunteers In Mission, a program to facilitate short-term mission opportunities for Presbyterians and other Christians. She served the profoundly mentally-challenged, and physically-handicapped residents in Deland, Fla. She also volunteered at the Church World Service Distribution Center in Windsor, Md. and at 70, signed on to a church building project on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. A few years later, she joined an area church group in Duluth, Minn. to lay cinder blocks for the community center that would be used by the local tribe of Indians. Evelyn valued Christian missions as new opportunities to give, rather than to drain her resources. She was fond of saying, "You can't take it with you, so you might as well send it on ahead."
Evelyn Taylor Updegraff was an extraordinary woman and the cherished matriarch of her family, not only the rock of stability, but a Godly role model. Her family and friends will celebrate her life and home-going at Lycoming Presbyterian Church, 825 Arch Street, Williamsport, Pa. on Feb. 1, 2003 at 1:00 pm.
The family will provide flowers, but asks that donations in her honor be made to Northumberland Presbyterian Women and earmarked tMissions to go to the Honduran Children's Scholarship Fund. These may be mailed to Mary Ann Wertman, Mission Treasurer, 1749 Shiffler Avenue Williamsport, PA 17701.1
She was widowed at age 45 by the death of Clair on 1 January 1960.5,6,2 As of circa 2000, Evelyn Arlene Taylor lived at 872 Rural Avenue, Williamsport, Pennsylvania.1 Her obituary was published on 24 January 2003 in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, printed in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Her obituary stated:
Evelyn Taylor Updegraff, 88, of 872 Rural Ave., died Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003, at Williamsport Hospital. She was born March 1, 1914, in Cogan House during what came to be known as the Billy Sunday Blizzard, when the famous evangelist preached at a nearby tent meeting while a foot of snow blanketed the area. Evelyn has been taking the world by storm ever since.
Evelyn Arlene was the fourth of twelve children, and the last surviving child of Merton Taylor and Minnie Miller. She is preceded in death by her husband, Claire E. Updegraff, of Williamsport, and is survived by four children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Rebecca Tunnell lives in Malvern, Pa. and Karen Sharer in Cherry Hill, N.J., while her sons, Mark and Marshall Updegraff are both local residents.
Her grandson, Douglas Tunnell and his wife and three daughters, Megan, Sarah and Madison, live in Phoenixville, Pa. Christopher Sharer resides in Ann Arbor, Mich., Anne Tunnell in West Chester, Mark Claire Updegraff of Rochester, N.Y., and Sarah Updegraff is attending Oberlin College in Ohio. Kathryn is still at home with Mark and Roberta. Amanda, Samantha and Claire are the daughters of Marshall and Susan Updegraff.
Evelyn Updegraff was a member of Lycoming Presbyterian Church. She served as elder, and participated in the women s association, church school and the general life of the church. She was an active member of Northumberland Presbyterian Women s Association, the Salvation Army Auxiliary, and volunteered at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. For many years, she also served on the planning committee for the area Christian Women s Club monthly luncheons.
Evelyn participated in the highway cleanup program, and often volunteered for special social and educational projects. Among her various accomplishments was her personally making more than 3,000 hospital gowns for the Presbyterian Medical Benevolence Fund, and these garments have been utilized in developing countries throughout the world.
She enjoyed sorting and mending clothing for the Salvation Army Thrift Store, but was always on the lookout for special items to fill boxes for her pet mission the projects. Evelyn collected layette items for local women's ministries and for mission projects globally. She sent hundreds of winter hats and mittens to an ecumenical Christian agency serving Appalachia in W.Va.
Over the years, Evelyn collected much-needed supplies for Rwanda, Romania, Bosnia and Honduras, and recycled bed sheets into hundreds of roller bandages for hospitals in other developing countries. Her favorite and longest running mission enterprise, however, was International Book Project. For more than 40 years, Evelyn gathered good text books from area schools, churches and friends to send to the Philippines, Marshall Islands, Thailand, Nigeria, India, Grenada, Ghana, West Africa, Poland, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea among others. The thank-you messages from schools throughout the world are among her treasures.
Evelyn was a lifelong gardener, and faithfully tended the flower beds she planted at Lycoming Presbyterian Church, as well as at home. She will be remembered by countless people for the hand-picked bouquets she took to friends and neighbors in the hospital or recovering at home, and for providing for other needs before they could be vocalized.
Quilting was her passion, and over the years she constructed many of the prize-winning entries in area shows. With each meticulously executed stitch, Evelyn pieced together fabric and spirit to make priceless heirlooms for her children and grandchildren. Many of these creations were auctioned to provide funds for the mission projects she loved best.
Evelyn Updegraff retired from teaching third grade at Nisbet Elementary in 1974 from the South Williamsport Area School District. She signed on with Volunteers In Mission, a program to facilitate short-term mission opportunities for Presbyterians and other Christians. She served the profoundly mentally-challenged, and physically-handicapped residents in Deland, Fla. She also volunteered at the Church World Service Distribution Center in Windsor, Md. and at 70, signed on to a church building project on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. A few years later, she joined an area church group in Duluth, Minn. to lay cinder blocks for the community center that would be used by the local tribe of Indians. Evelyn valued Christian missions as new opportunities to give, rather than to drain her resources. She was fond of saying, "You can't take it with you, so you might as well send it on ahead."
Evelyn Taylor Updegraff was an extraordinary woman and the cherished matriarch of her family, not only the rock of stability, but a Godly role model. Her family and friends will celebrate her life and home-going at Lycoming Presbyterian Church, 825 Arch Street, Williamsport, Pa. on Feb. 1, 2003 at 1:00 pm.
The family will provide flowers, but asks that donations in her honor be made to Northumberland Presbyterian Women and earmarked tMissions to go to the Honduran Children's Scholarship Fund. These may be mailed to Mary Ann Wertman, Mission Treasurer, 1749 Shiffler Avenue Williamsport, PA 17701.1
Children of Evelyn Arlene Taylor and Clair Edward Updegraff
Last Edited=22 Aug 2011
Citations
- [S327] Evelyn Taylor Updegraff obituary, Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 24 January 2003. Original obituary from the Williamsport Sun-Gazette 30 day obituary archive found at: http://www.sungazette.com/obituary/obituaryArchive.asp. Kevin Leonard Sholder, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
- [S2158] Roberta Updegraff, Updegraff / Blair Family Trees, online http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/13004757/ (Williamsport, Pennsylvania: page last updated 2011) viewed on 22 August 2011.
- [S151] Social Security Death Index, RootsWeb online, at http://ssdi.rootsweb.com (Baltimore, Maryland: U.S. Social Security Administration, January 2004 update). The SSDI component of RootsWeb online is drawn from the Social Security Death Benefits Index of the U.S. Social Security Administration. EVELYN T UPDEGRAFF, birth listed as 02 Mar 1914, died listed as 22 Jan 2003 (V), issued in the State of Pennsylvania. Last residence Williamsport, Lycoming, PA, last benefit (none specified). Accessed 12 Jul 2004.
- [S327] Evelyn Taylor Updegraff obituary, Williamsport Sun-Gazette, 24 January 2003, indicates incorrect date as 1 March 1914.
- [S15] June (Shaull) Lutz, History of the Op Den Graef / Updegraff Family (Grand Rapids, Michigan; 1433 Elderwood Ct. N.W.: J. S. Lutz, 1988), p. U-63.
- [S151] SSDI, RootsWeb online. (CLAIR UPDEGRAFF, birth listed as Dec 0000, died listed as Jan 1960, issued in the State of Pennsylvania. Last residence (not specified), last benefit (none specified). Accessed 12 Jul 2004.).