After stints of running an antique store and Christian bookstore, after living in San Diego for a time, Ken Evans is back at Evans Motors, just in time to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the business founded by his father.
J.R. “Ray” Evans started the firm in 1935.
“He started in a service station in Girard,” Evans said.
His father took a partner, Buster Brown, in 1937, and the business was known as Brown and Evans for a while. It changed back in 1941 when Ray Evans bought Brown out.
The business, now at 112 W. St. John, has had various locations.
“It was down right across from Haldeman-Julius Blue Books, half a block east off the north side of the Girard square,” Evans said. “Those buildings are all torn down now. In 1967 we built a new dealership on the west edge of Girard.”
Evans, 82, remembers that there were a lot of tough times before World War II.
“Right before the war they did ship us some cars, but they had no bumpers,” Evans said. “We had to put four-by-fours on them for bumpers. There was no chrome on them, either.”
He remembers that his father would buy and sell anything available.
“My father would trade for horses, guns — anything people had that was worth anything,” he said. “We had a farm where we kept the livestock.”
He and his older brother, Rip Evans, served their country during the war, Evans in the U.S. Navy and his brother in the U.S. Army.
“My mother and father kept the business going through the war,” Evans said. “Everything was rationed, including gas and tires.”
He joined the business with his father after his discharge from the military.
“Rip didn’t like the auto business, but I did,” Evans said. “My father and I were great partners and got along well. He didn’t finish high school, but he managed things very well and was a great businessman.”
He added that his father had a well-deserved reputation for honesty and fair dealing.
“We had two customers who said we didn’t charge them enough, so they gave us more money,” Evans said.
Following the war, there were buyers, but cars were scarce.
“Many people were black-marketing cars, but my father would never do that,” he said.
Instead, his father kept a list of those who wanted cars, and whenever one was available, it automatically went to the person at the top of the list.
The dealership first handled Chryslers and Plymouths, and Evans remembers making many trips to Detroit to bring back cars.
“We’d go up with a careful of drivers, who would bring the new cars back,” Evans said. “Once the Chrysler vice president called my father in and asked how many times he’d been there. He said that the man whose job it was to show visitors around the place told him that my father could do just as good a job as he could because he’d been there so many times.”
In 1957 Evans Motors dropped Chrysler and Plymouth and picked up Chevrolet and Oldsmobile.
“We’d have spectacular showings of the new models, with a band and hot dogs,” Evans said. “For a small town that was a big thing.”
“We would hide the new cars in our garages at home, all covered up, until the show,” added his son, Greg Evans.
In those days, Evans said, many people chose to purchase a new car every year, trading in the previous year’s model.
“You could trade a car for $200 to $250,” he said. “One of the first Plymouths we sold went to a rural mail carrier, and we went on to sell him 26 cars over the years.”
His son cited another customer who had purchased 30 cars from the company.
Evans Motors became the first to lease school buses to the Girard schools.
“We were also the first to have modified stock car, race cars,” Evans added.
“By 1977 we were probably one of the largest GM dealers in southeast Kansas,” Greg Evans said. “We did a lot of business in Kansas City, and Wichita, too, and had truck contracts with a lot of people.”
In 1977, the year his father died, Evans turned the business over to his son.
“I just wanted to do something different,” he said. “I had an antique store and Christian book store in Pittsburg from 1977 to 1987, and I started the Spirit Rental Car System in Kansas and Oklahoma.”
He lived in San Diego for a time, but has returned to Girard to be near his family.
“Five years ago I turned the business over to my son, Nate, and my father is going to be helping him,” said Greg Evans.
He thinks Evans Motors is probably the oldest family-owned auto dealership in southeast Kansas, and maybe in southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma as well.
“I don’t know of any others that have four generations involved,” Greg Evans said.
Also in Girard is Evans’ daughter and her husband, Cheryl and Roger Breneman.
“It’s a beautiful thing that all my family is here in Girard and Pittsburg, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said.
He’s also got numerous friends and former customers around.
“Everybody who’s ever bought a car from my father is welcome to drop by and say hello to him as we celebrate our 75th anniversary,” Greg Evans said.
|
|
|
After stints of running an antique store and Christian bookstore, after living in San Diego for a time, Ken Evans is back at Evans Motors, just in time to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the business founded by his father.
J.R. “Ray” Evans started the firm in 1935.
“He started in a service station in Girard,” Evans said.
His father took a partner, Buster Brown, in 1937, and the business was known as Brown and Evans for a while. It changed back in 1941 when Ray Evans bought Brown out.
The business, now at 112 W. St. John, has had various locations.
“It was down right across from Haldeman-Julius Blue Books, half a block east off the north side of the Girard square,” Evans said. “Those buildings are all torn down now. In 1967 we built a new dealership on the west edge of Girard.”
Evans, 82, remembers that there were a lot of tough times before World War II.
“Right before the war they did ship us some cars, but they had no bumpers,” Evans said. “We had to put four-by-fours on them for bumpers. There was no chrome on them, either.”
He remembers that his father would buy and sell anything available.
“My father would trade for horses, guns — anything people had that was worth anything,” he said. “We had a farm where we kept the livestock.”
He and his older brother, Rip Evans, served their country during the war, Evans in the U.S. Navy and his brother in the U.S. Army.
“My mother and father kept the business going through the war,” Evans said. “Everything was rationed, including gas and tires.”
He joined the business with his father after his discharge from the military.
“Rip didn’t like the auto business, but I did,” Evans said. “My father and I were great partners and got along well. He didn’t finish high school, but he managed things very well and was a great businessman.”
He added that his father had a well-deserved reputation for honesty and fair dealing.
“We had two customers who said we didn’t charge them enough, so they gave us more money,” Evans said.
Following the war, there were buyers, but cars were scarce.
“Many people were black-marketing cars, but my father would never do that,” he said.
Instead, his father kept a list of those who wanted cars, and whenever one was available, it automatically went to the person at the top of the list.
The dealership first handled Chryslers and Plymouths, and Evans remembers making many trips to Detroit to bring back cars.
“We’d go up with a careful of drivers, who would bring the new cars back,” Evans said. “Once the Chrysler vice president called my father in and asked how many times he’d been there. He said that the man whose job it was to show visitors around the place told him that my father could do just as good a job as he could because he’d been there so many times.”
In 1957 Evans Motors dropped Chrysler and Plymouth and picked up Chevrolet and Oldsmobile.
“We’d have spectacular showings of the new models, with a band and hot dogs,” Evans said. “For a small town that was a big thing.”
“We would hide the new cars in our garages at home, all covered up, until the show,” added his son, Greg Evans.
In those days, Evans said, many people chose to purchase a new car every year, trading in the previous year’s model.
“You could trade a car for $200 to $250,” he said. “One of the first Plymouths we sold went to a rural mail carrier, and we went on to sell him 26 cars over the years.”
His son cited another customer who had purchased 30 cars from the company.
Evans Motors became the first to lease school buses to the Girard schools.
“We were also the first to have modified stock car, race cars,” Evans added.
“By 1977 we were probably one of the largest GM dealers in southeast Kansas,” Greg Evans said. “We did a lot of business in Kansas City, and Wichita, too, and had truck contracts with a lot of people.”
In 1977, the year his father died, Evans turned the business over to his son.
“I just wanted to do something different,” he said. “I had an antique store and Christian book store in Pittsburg from 1977 to 1987, and I started the Spirit Rental Car System in Kansas and Oklahoma.”
He lived in San Diego for a time, but has returned to Girard to be near his family.
“Five years ago I turned the business over to my son, Nate, and my father is going to be helping him,” said Greg Evans.
He thinks Evans Motors is probably the oldest family-owned auto dealership in southeast Kansas, and maybe in southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma as well.
“I don’t know of any others that have four generations involved,” Greg Evans said.
Also in Girard is Evans’ daughter and her husband, Cheryl and Roger Breneman.
“It’s a beautiful thing that all my family is here in Girard and Pittsburg, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said.
He’s also got numerous friends and former customers around.
“Everybody who’s ever bought a car from my father is welcome to drop by and say hello to him as we celebrate our 75th anniversary,” Greg Evans said.
