Miss Evelyn Choate is one of several teachers to be honored in the Stivers Hall of Fame. She graduated from Roosevelt High School and attended a local teacher’s college in 1930. After graduation, she began her teaching career in the Dayton School System. Beginning in 1936 she attended a Northwestern University summer program and eventually graduated from Northwestern University with both a B.S. and Master’s Degree.
While attending Roosevelt, she participated in many plays, starting a love for the stage that she passed on to many of her students. She directed more than 50 plays during her tenure at Stivers High School. Some of her favorites were, Pride and Prejudice, Nine Girls, Death Takes a Holiday, Seventeenth Summer, Jane Eyre, Little Women and Oklahoma!
In November of 1954 she directed a WHIO-TV television series about paperboys called Here Comes a Businessman. In 1956 she also was honored by the YMCA for her outstanding service in directing many plays for that organization.
Somehow she found time to be a world traveler. In 1965 she was on a tour that went around the world in 49 days. She commented in a Stivers News article, “We don’t know how good we have it until you visit some other countries”.
After her retirement in 1970, the Sheehan Family had a retirement party for her. In attendance were WHIO celebrities Don Wayne, Betty Rogge and Harry Butler.
We will never know how many lives this lady touched, but we do know that she was a tireless worker, sometimes acting as director, producer, costume designer and make-up artist. A quote from a 1967 Stivers News stated, “We hop Miss Choate is with us for MANY more years, for what would we do without her”.
Miss Choate died while visiting Maine, one of her most frequented vacation areas, in 1978 at the age of 68.