Katrina's Lives Lost:	Evans, Louis Jr. 1958-2005
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A March 2006
Source:			Times Picayune 

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Somewhere along the way, Louis Evans Jr. lost his rhythm.

A fan of old school funk and a trumpet player in the West Jefferson High
School band, Evans loved music and always had the latest records as he was
growing up in Marrero, said his niece Giselle Johnson Lewis.

A Jackson 5 aficionado, Evans and some of his friends even formed a tribute
group as teenagers, performing as the famous Motown quintet for family
functions.

But when Evans remarried in 2001, Lewis said she noticed at the reception
that he and the beat were no longer acquainted.

"Way back in the '70s he had it," she said, giggling. "I don't know what
happened to it. I think he just lost his rhythm at some point."

But friends and family said that being rhythmically challenged in his later
years never put a damper on Evans' love of music and never stopped him from
taking the lead in a second-line.

Born in Algiers and raised in Marrero, Evans experienced loss early in
life. His father and baby brother died when he was very young, and after
his older siblings moved away, teenage Louis declared himself the man of
the house.

"He basically took care of his mom," Lewis said. "It was just the two of
them living together."

Evans graduated from West Jefferson and received an associate degree in
business from Holy Cross College. He picked up welding jobs and did
ornamental ironwork for a while, then went to work for Monsanto in Luling
as a lab tech.

Evans married his first wife, Corliss, in 1978. The couple had three
children: Louis Evans III, LaTanya Evans and LaToya Evans. Corliss died in
1999 of a heart attack. He and his second wife, Karen Valentine, were
virtually inseparable. He treated her so royally that friends of the couple
nicknamed him "The Prince."

"They were so lovey-dovey, they couldn't keep their hands off of each
other," said Evans' co-worker and friend Jeffery Wright. "Kiss-kiss, hug-
hug, and that was for years."

Wright said Evans had an itch to go into business for himself. For a few
years, he ran a women's health spa in Harvey. But he later sold the
business, and he and Karen Evans incorporated Hallmark Constructions.
Through the company Evans built his wife her dream home, a mansion in
Barkley Estates in Harvey.

It was his desire to make sure all was well with his wife's castle that
brought Evans back to the New Orleans area from Houston just two days after
Hurricane Katrina made landfall Aug. 29. He told her he wanted to make sure
any repairs were done quickly so he could get to work helping anyone else
in the neighborhood in need.

The two called each other every few hours, Karen Evans said. And that's why
she felt something was wrong on the evening of Sept. 2 when Evans hadn't
called to tell her goodnight.

Evans had been staying on a large boat with friends on the Harvey Canal.
Earlier that evening, they had gone out in a smaller craft that overturned.
Everyone made it to the banks except Evans.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office divers searched the swollen waters of the
canal for hours, but couldn't find his body. A family friend searching the
water in a boat found Evans, who was pulled from the water and brought
ashore by family members.

"He waited for us to come," Karen Evans said. "God wanted him to be
embraced by loving arms."