Corrie Ten Boom & Laura Ingalls Wilder; Evelyn Hinds portrays holocaust survivors Corrie Ten Boom who wrote The Hiding Place & Laura Ingalls Wilder who wrote the Little House on the Prairie books.

Profile From Tulsa Women Magazine, September, 1998

Evelyn Hinds:
Teaching Lifetime Learning
By Joan Rhine, Staff Writer

Evelyn Hinds was born to be a teacher. "I knew from the time I was a little kid that was what I was meant to do," she said. "That's what I am."

Yet, as simply as she states it, Evelyn's life work did not lead directly to conventional teaching with blackboards and class planners and desks aligned in perfect rows. A tour through this elegant, slim blond's house shows favored family antiques she's restored and others she found in shops. Prints on the walls display a love of Van Gogh, and art in general. Guest bedrooms double as sewing rooms, where her creativity gets free rein. Yet, as ordered as Evelyn's life is now, it wasn't always so neat and structured, although the promise was always there.

Evelyn graduated summa cum laude from Park College in Kansas City, Mo. with a liberal arts degree in English Language and Literature, and was awarded the R.J. Greef English Award for outstanding prospective teacher.

She has a grown son, Wes, who was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis when he was four. Employment as a respiratory therapist at a Kansas City hospital led Evelyn to medical treatment possibilities for Wes, but dealing daily with the desperately ill took its toll.

"Everyone was dying," she recalled, a small crease formed between her brows. "No one who came through our doors was just a little sick. It was overwhelming."

Then her marriage fell apart. She needed some kind of escape, so she visited museums.

"Phillipians 4:8 says in part, 'whatever things are lovely, meditate on these things,'" Evelyn said. "Going to the museum was a way I could dress up, forget my problems for a while, and put my mind on something lovely. In the museum I could be transported to another place, another continent."

Eventually, treatments for Wes led to journeys out of state and out of the country, so Evelyn got a job in the pantry food service department at TWA. A perfectionist in all she does, Evelyn was quickly promoted to fleet service and performed cleaning duties related to airplane overhaul. Being inside made her aware of all the panels and electronics encased within each fuselage. By 1987, Evelyn completed training to become one of the few women at the time licensed in Avionics Technology, an aviation electronics specialty field. Career rewards were offset, however, by log hours and the stress of raising her son as a single parent, so Evelyn continued her museum visits.

She always took tours when she could, enjoying the information each docent imparted. But it wasn't until a day when one of the older docents stopped the tour to exclaim over how she'd always loved the particularly realistic musculature of a lion statue that Evelyn realized the true calling of a docent.

"I'd been by that lion hundreds of times and never really noticed the detail." Evelyn said. Listening to the woman's enthusiastic comments made Evelyn realize that even as a person looks at something she loves, she may not see everything another person sees. "To be able to elevate people out of where they are--that's what I wanted to do."

In 1991, she met and married her husband, Rob, and they moved to Tulsa a year later. Once they were settled and found they didn't need Evelyn's paycheck, it was decided that she would pursue her dream of docent work, teaching art through discovery.

                "You have to commit for three years." Evelyn explained. "The first year is class you attend once a week. After you fulfill that commitment, you choose what day each week you want to work and you take tours that come in on that day."

                She usually has about two weeks to prepare before leading specific groups. For the summer, she led garden tours for the kids enrolled in the Floyd Museum School.

                "I can dress up any way I want," she said, smiling. "Like a gardener guy, or whatever. That's fun. I also enjoy conducting senior citizen tours."

                Dressing up is in Evelyn's blood, too. In college she tried her hand at dramatic arts and caught the bug. Today, she uses her acting talents to recreate the lives of others. In 1996, she began by bringing to life one of the Philbrook Museum's most-loved supporters, Laura Clubb. After the performance, family members came up with tears in their eyes, amazed at how Evelyn captured Mrs. Clubb's soul.

                In 1997, she studied, then performed a series of dramatic portrayals featuring Corrie ten Boom, a Christian woman from Holland who was held in a WWII concentration camp as punishment for helping Jews escape Nazi capture. When Evelyn takes the stage with wig, slightly stooped posture, European accent, and a moving tale of wartime atrocities and postwar triumph, it's hard for the audience to remember that there is a young, vibrant woman hiding behind the facade. This continues to be a ministry for Evelyn; and she performs the role for church and children's groups.

                "I think my strength is in my passion," she said.

                Another passion includes public speaking, going into women's groups to discuss subjects like how friendships are evolving and how to understand different personalities. In discipleship for her church, she also leads a women's Sunday School class, as well as an ongoing Weigh Down Workshop to aid group weight-loss and spiritual well being. Evelyn views all of this as a continual learning experience. She attends speaking conventions and watches tapes of her favorite speakers, studying, then emulating manners and body movements.

                "No one who comes to hear me speak is there just to hear my words," she explained. "People want to be moved and inspired. What moves them is passion."

                Teaching a passion for life takes a lifetime of learning, and Evelyn Hinds has only begun.