On Tuesday mornings, Maggie Evans hits the bowling lanes at Patricia Lanes in Dothan. Every other morning, the 81-year-old is likely at Rose Hill Senior Adult Center.
“I bowl, I go to church, and the center is my home,” Evans said in summing up what she enjoys doing. “I love the center.”
She’s been going to Rose Hill since 2003 after her husband of 57 years, Emory Evans, passed away. Her children live away from Dothan, so Evans was alone. Then, a neighbor told her about the activities and programs offered at Rose Hill through the City of Dothan’s leisure services department.
“It was a lifesaver for me,” she said. “It keeps me active.”
And Evans has apparently made an impression on her fellow senior adults at Rose Hill. She was selected as the center’s Senior of the Year. Along with some attention, Evans gets a spot in Saturday’s National Peanut Festival parade.
“Now to my children and grandchildren, that’s the big thing,” she said.
Born in Elba and raised in the Enterprise area, Maggie Evans married Emory Evans, a minister, in 1947. The couple moved around before building a home in Dothan in 1962. She was a hairdresser, and he was a barber when he wasn’t pastoring. They each had their own shops, but eventually came together under one roof in Evans Family Hair Center. They worked side by side for 15 years in that salon.
“It was great; we enjoyed it,” Maggie Evans said.
Emory, she said, always kept the laughs going for her and the couple’s two children.
“When we were pastoring, we were known as ‘The Happy Four’,” she said. “ ... My husband always tried to keep our home happy.”
With four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Evans keeps her son and daughter on their toes.
“My children are so proud of me,” she said. “They call me and say, ‘So, mother, what you you done now?’”
She doesn’t quilt or sew, but she loves dominoes and helping out in the kitchen or just visiting with others who frequent Rose Hill. She’s also on the center’s Wii bowling team.
“Some people think this is an old people’s place where you just come and sit,” she said.
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