Obituary of John Edward Evers

DYERSVILLE, IOWA John Edward Evers, 87, a native of Dyersville, died November 16, 2013, in Connecticut Hospice. John, who had lived for the past six and one-half years at Arden Courts, an assisted care facility in Connecticut, died of complications of Alzheimer's disease, according to his niece, Karolyn Schuster Harwood, of Woodbridge, Connecticut, who has watched over him for the past decade. Friends may call from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013, at the Kramer Funeral Home in Dyersville. A Mass of Christian Burial will commence at 11:00 a.m. at St. Francis Xavier Basilica in Dyersville, with burial in the church cemetery, where military honors will be accorded by American Legion Post 137. Rev. Noah Diehm will officiate. John was born on the farm north of Dyersville owned by his parents, Edward J. and Stella (Cunningham) Evers, on November 7, 1926. He graduated from Xavier High School in 1944 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy one month before his eighteenth birthday. He served as a Sound Man Third Class on a ship in the Pacific during World War II. A drummer in the Xavier High School band, he played in the Navy's 12th Regiment's Drum and Bugle Corps. John graduated from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy in 1951. He stayed at the university an extra year so that he could take additional courses in art, his lifelong passion. After a short stint as a pharmacist in a Davenport drug store, John moved east in 1953 to begin a 40-year career with Merck, Sharp & Dohme, the pharmaceutical company, as an executive professional representative in the New Jersey area. He received numerous professional achievement and sales awards from the company before retiring in 1993. John was a talented and accomplished photographer and artist. Three of his photographs, taken during a University of Iowa-sponsored expedition he took to Antarctica in 1992, were selected for a 1993 photographic exhibition at the university entitled "The Antarctica Experience." It was in Connecticut in his later years that John received attention and acclaim for his artwork. He had been drawing and painting since he was a boy growing up in Iowa. As an adult, he painted in his spare time, exploring a variety of styles and working in a wide range of media. John estimated that he had painted 200 pictures in his lifetime, all of which he gave away to friends and relatives. In 2007, shortly after his move to Connecticut, Karolyn and the staff of Arden Courts hosted an art exhibit of John's paintings and an artist reception that coincided with a celebration for his 81st birthday. John was very involved in the planning of the event, from the concert pianist who played throughout the party to the enormous bouquets of fresh-cut flowers that filled the room. Twenty of his works were placed on easels through the Arden Courts community center and a large, framed charcoal sketch of a dog done by his mother, from whom he inherited his artistic talent, was displayed at the entrance to the exhibit. Feature stories ran in local newspapers and more than 100 people from the community, some of them artists themselves, attended the show and spoke with John about his work. Many of the rural scenes in John's artwork were painted from his Iowa memories. John had produced four different paintings of the farm where he was born, all in different media, styles and sizes, for himself and his three siblings. The exhibit was the first public recognition of his artistic work but not the last. Several months after the show, a woman who had attended the event asked John to show his paintings in a private room in the Cheshire, Connecticut, Public Library. A selection of his work hung in that exhibit room for a month. Beginning in 2009, photos of John's paintings were submitted to an annual calendar competition held by HCR ManorCare, a corporation of approximately 500 assisted care and nursing facilities across the country. For five consecutive years — from 2010 to 2014 — John had artwork selected for the calendar. In two of those years, two paintings were selected. The 2014 calendar, which features two of his paintings, was at the printers at the time of his death. John was preceded in death by his older sister, Mary Jane (Dolly) Schuster, his younger brother, Thomas C. Evers, three sisters-in-law, Betty Evers, Mary Lou Evers and Audrey Evers, a brother-in-law, Walter J. Schuster and a niece, Dr. Ann Evers Spodnik. He is survived by an older brother, Dr. Robert N. Evers, of Vero Beach, Florida, and six nephews and seven nieces.