Eva Theresa (Downs) Carr

Eva Theresa Downs Carr went to her Heavenly home on Friday, August 20, 2021.  Eva was born December 4, 1922, in Water Valley, Mississippi to Reuben Daniel and Isabel Nolan Downs. They were sharecroppers in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.  The Great Depression and the Oklahoma dust storms were a part of Eva’s and her 5 siblings’ everyday lives. She told of her mother gathering the children and taking refuge from the dust storm in an old shed in Tallahatchie County near Sumner.  The dust came through every crack.

From Sumner the family moved to Philipp, Mississippi, and Eva finished high school at East Tallahatchie. She met and fell in love with a man with a red shirt, playing baseball in a field.  She married John Sidney Carr on August 8, 1942. He went off to war and was wounded on the same day Eva accepted Christ as her Savior.  But she did not know this until later. John Sidney was returned to the states on the Queen Mary and spent years of medical treatments and therapy at the old Veterans’ Hospital in Jackson.

When Eva began attending church in Philipp, she was asked to teach the junior boys’ class.  That was the beginning of her ministry.  She taught for over 60 years wherever she lived but her favorite students were the young married couples, who to this day will tell you how great her teaching was.  There was never an error in her teaching of God’s Word.

Eva and Sidney reared three children:  Raymonda Faye (husband Robert E. Gibney, Sr.); John Kelly (wife Mary Ann Holman); and Theresa Kay (husband Wayne E. Walker). She disciplined us often and fairly. 

Eva worked at several businesses as a bookkeeper and a grocery clerk which she loved.  Piggly Wiggly on Cotton Street, Fants off Claiborne and Liberty Cash on Main were her last three work sites.  Many people remember her at these stores long after she retired.

Eva was never one to hold back on her opinions and never went back on her word.  Her strength was in her voice. Her love for our family was immeasurable. Thank God He gave her to us and for Daddy to be her strength and support. We will see her again with Sidney one day.

The oldest of six brothers and sisters, she was the last to join them in Heaven.

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