Evelyn Henderson Obituary

Henderson, Evelyn Mildred Services for Evelyn Mildred Henderson, 109 -who lived to see the elections of nearly 20 presidents, and could recall the sinking of the Titanic were held in Winchester, Kentucky, on Thursday, April 17, 2014. A native of Winchester, Mrs. Henderson lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood with her daughter, Theresa Burroughs, for close to 20 years, just a block from the home of President Barack Obama. She died of natural causes on April 8, 2014. Mrs. Henderson was born on February 10, 1905, to Dr. John and Eva Tyler, the second of two daughters. She graduated cum laude in 1926 from Wilberforce University, where she was selected as Miss Wilberforce in 1925, and pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She was married in 1927 to big band musician Horace Henderson, and had one daughter, Theresa. She was offered a fellowship to study at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, earning a Master of Science degree in Library Science. Her career in education began in Cairo, Illinois, and from 1933 to 1957, she taught at Oliver High School in Winchester, where she organized the school's library and started a Travel Club that allowed students to travel to numerous sites in Kentucky, New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. In 1957, she accepted a position at Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky, where she worked as the school librarian and Latin teacher. She later worked at Lexington Junior High School, and retired in 1972 after 42 years of service to the field of education. In the 1990s, Mrs. Henderson moved to Hyde Park to live with her daughter; even after the age of 100, she continued to enjoy her favorite pastimes of gardening, knitting, sewing, and crocheting, baking her famed buttermilk pound cakes, playing card games on the computer, watching college basketball, and working crossword puzzles. She also remained interested in current events and politics; she read the newspaper daily, and was proud to cast her vote in the 2012 Presidential election. To honor and treasure her memory, Mildred leaves her daughter, Theresa Henderson Burroughs; three grandchildren, Kevin Smith, Chicago musician Alan Burroughs, and Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, an employee of the Chicago Public Schools system; four great-grandchildren, Kevin Smith, Jr., Imani Walton-Burroughs, Veronica Hannsberry, and Jessica Hannsberry; and one great, great-grandson, D'Quan Mace, all of Chicago.