Local man wishes for one last Bama game

By Staff
Nathan Strickland
Drivers may have an odd reaction when they see a man in a motor chair cruising down the highway, but for Thomas Evans those are the times he cherishes most in life.
Evans, 69, has lived in several parts of Alabama in his lifetime. As a child he attended Hackleburg School, then later transferred to Russellville in fourth grade and stayed until graduation.
Evans wasn't like most kids his age. When he was nearly six months old, Evans was diagnosed with polio. The disease has affected Evan's mobility, but when he was young he was able to get around with leg braces and crutches for the most part.
"The people I went to school with will probably know me by the little red wagon I used to be dragged around in," he said. "I graduated from Russellville in 1959 and went off to college just like everyone else, the disease didn't deter me from reaching what I wanted to do in life."
Evans attended Larimore Business School in Florence and majored in accounting. After college ended he took a job at L.C. Fuller Lumber Company in Haleyville. There he met his wife, Georgia Williams Evans and stayed in Haleyville for about three years.
Evans found accounting work at a firm in Birmingham soon after and the happily married couple moved south to spend about 40 years of their life.
Along the way, Evans was blessed with two boys and a stepdaughter who still come to visit every now and again these days.
"My mother and my family lived up here but I took off south because that's where the work was," he said. "My wife passed away in 1989 and I continued to stay down south until my family convinced me to move back up here in 2000."
Three months after he moved back to Russellville, doctors diagnosed Evans with post-polio syndrome, which confined him to a motor chair with limited physical mobility.
Evans then moved into an assisted living facility at what was then known as Lawrence Place. That facility closed temporarily in 2008 and opened back under new ownership and renamed Southern Manor.
"When Lawrence Place shut down I was saddened, but I had to find a place to put myself so I got in at Columbia Cottage over in Florence," he said. "It was ok for the most part, but I was limited on where I could go there."
Fortunately, Southern Rural Home Health purchased the building and re-opened as Southern Manor assisted living. Evans said he couldn't wait to get back home.
"I was one of the last ones out and the first one back in," he said. " We got a real good bunch of people running this place now. I really enjoy this place."
Evans' hobbies now consist of riding down Franklin Street with his motor chair, watching T.V., playing on the computer and waiting for the annual Watermelon Festival, Atlanta Braves baseball and University of Alabama football to start back again.
"I love watching Alabama football games. I have an autographed picture of Nick Saban my nephew gave me hanging on the wall," he said. "I am a huge fan."
Evans said he has only been to one live Alabama game and that was back when he was a teenager. The one thing he said he wanted to do before he went on to the next life is to have a chance to attend another one of those games.
In 2006, Evans had a scare at the Watermelon festival.
"I was coming down Washington Street and came off the curb at an angle and flipped my chair. The only thing I was worried about was if my chair was ok because I had just gotten it," he said, laughing. "I really scared myself that day, but I didn't have much time to think about myself when it happened because medics were helping me in a matter of seconds. That hasn't scared me away from downtown though, I still attend the festival every year."
Now days, Evans lives one day at a time. He stays indoors during the winter months, but once it warms up everyone near Franklin Street in downtown Russellville should expect to see the man who has had an exciting life and living life to the fullest as he rolls down the street on his power chair.