artists, and by invitation of the Bishop of Bayonne he played three Gregorian High Masses in Bayonne Cathedral. We next hear of Evans in Vienna, where he collaborated with the Vienna Academy of Music in directing the G. I. music school.
In 1946 and 1947 Mr. Evans was in California as director of choral music at Leland Stanford University. During his second year on the west coast he was visiting lecturer and conductor at the University of California at Los Angeles. There he conducted both chorus and orchestra, and lectured on the history and literature of church music.
In 1948 and 1949 Mack Evans was organist, accompanist and assistant to the director of the Boy's Town, Nebraska, choirs. He left Boy's Town to take over the position of Director of Music at the First Unitarian Church in Chicago, a church known for unexcelled musical standards. In addition to this work, he is at present engaged in the private coaching of singers, speakers and amateur theatrical productions.
Walter Rooke Evans
Welterweight wrestling champion of the world and middleweight wrestling champion of the world – both of these titles in the sports arena were once held by Walter "Pop" Evans, an El Pasoan who attained the top in his field of athletics.
Evans was born in El Paso on March 29, 1892, the son of Robert J. Evans, co-owner of the El Paso Journal at that time, and later national secretary of the Duroc-Jersey association and editor of their magazine. Walter's mother was Nellie Rooke who was born in England and came to America at the age of six with her parents, settling in Emporia, Kansas. Walter attended grammar school in El Paso and high school in Peoria, where he excelled in basketball, baseball, football and in wrestling.
With an unusually powerful physique, Walter studied the original style of wrestling under Farmer Burns and the world's champion, Frank Gotch. With his interest and knowledge of the sport, he accompanied his father to Chicago in 1908 and began wrestling in athletic clubs, taking on all comers at the welterweight limit of 148 pounds. Finally Evans got a title match with the welterweight champion, Tom Rolowitz on February 16, 1912, and took away the title Rolowitz had held for seven years. Evans was never defeated in the welterweight class, but he outgrew the weight while serving in the army from 1917 to 1919.
Evans enlisted in the army April 6, 1917, the day the war was declared, leaving his job as wrestling coach at the University of Illinois. He served as an instructor at the first Officer's Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, and was commissioned a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 61st Infantry Regiment of the 5th Division, and went overseas with this unit. Be saw active duty in France, and after being wounded was sent back to the United States as an instructor in Stokes mortars and hand grenades at the Plattsburg, New York, Officer's
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