Evelyn Hopkins
July 05, 1928, Greenville, California — September 29, 2007, Bend, Oregon
Buried in Seldovia City Cemetery Plot #172
EVELYN WHEELER HOPKINS was born in Petaluma, Sonoma County, California to Ida Rose (Collins) Wheeler and Wesley Thayer Wheeler on July 5, 1928. She was raised on their dairy farm at Sunny Slope, west of Petaluma. In her youth, she helped milk 44 cows by hand twice per day. As a teenager, she met her future husband, Jack W. Hopkins, also of Petaluma. In 1945, Evelyn moved with her family to a ranch in Indian Valley, near Greenville, Plumas County at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She graduated from the Greenville High School in June 1946. Jack sailed worldwide in the Merchant Marine before and after the end of World War II and returned from the sea in 1946. Evelyn married Jack Hopkins at Reno, Nevada on November 17, 1947.
They began their married life on the coast at Orick, California, where Jack was beginning his logging career falling old-growth redwood timber. Jack came down with polio and Evelyn helped to nurse him back to health. In 1948, the couple relocated to Greenville and began their family and business. Jack purchased logging equipment and grew it into the Hopkins Logging Company. At one time, they managed three (sides) different logging operations at the same time.
Evelyn did all the accounting, payroll, and bill paying. For the next 22 years, they operated the Hopkins Logging Company. Evelyn with Jack raised their three sons, Bill, Jim, and Tom. She was an expert cook and gardener, with a deep fondness for western Americana, horses, good books, and Native American art.
In August 1969, Jack and Evelyn sold the Hopkins Logging Company and moved to Seldovia, Alaska near the western tip of the Kenai Peninsula. It was an epic family journey by air, land and sea. Jack returned to the sea working up the ranks to become a master mariner and ship pilot on the waters of Cook Inlet between Homer and Anchorage, Alaska. They built a large log home in the center of Seldovia. Jack died tragically in an aviation accident off Anchor Point in Cook Inlet on December 19, 1977.
In 1978, Evelyn was chosen to become the Magistrate for the Seldovia area. She attended to these duties for a year. Evelyn then remarried to Rawlins Apperson of Kenai, Alaska, on May 25, 1985 at Seldovia. In 1989, they moved to the Crooked River Ranch in central Oregon.
She died on September 29, 2007, in Bend, Oregon at the age of 79. . Evelyn was a beloved wife, and a wonderful mother to her sons, strong, firm and calm. We shall miss her loving kindness and wisdom. She was a devout Christian and believed in our Lord, Jesus Christ, and lived life fully.
Evelyn is preceded in death by her first husband Jack W. Hopkins and her daughter, Jean Ann Hopkins. She is survived by her second husband, Rawlins Apperson of Crooked River Ranch, Oregon. Her three sons and their wives are: Captain William and Wynn Hopkins of Ketchikan, Alaska, James Hopkins and Linda Hedgecoth-Hopkins of Seldovia, Alaska, and Tom Hopkins and Marsha Million-Hopkins of Homer, Alaska. There are nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She is also survived by two brothers, Lloyd Wheeler of Anchor Point, Alaska, and James Wheeler of San Luis Obispo, California, sister-in-law Rita Wheeler of Ajo, Arizona; and nieces, nephews, cousins, and their families.
She is buried in the Seldovia City Cemetery next to her husband Jack Hopkins, Plot #172 SEE JACK HOPKINS FAMILY