Evelyn May (Cooper) Foreman
Evelyn May (Cooper) Foreman died peacefully at her home on Sunday, Dec. 20. She was 92 years old. Evelyn (Eve) was born April 11, 1923, in South Shields, England, where she lived until 1941. In early 1941, after the outbreak of World War II in Europe, she joined the Auxiliary Territory Service of the British Army. During the War, she met Reuel Foreman, a US Army GI from Missouri. They were married in South Shields on October 30, 1945. In June 1946, Eve sailed for the United States to join Reuel in Kansas City, Kansas, as a part of the US Army's Operation War Bride. Eve and Reuel's two children, Charles and Patricia, were born in Kansas City. Reuel took a job with the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in May 1952, leaving Eve and the children for 19 months; in December 1953, Eve and the children joined him in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia. After almost seven years in Ras Tanura, the family moved to Dhahran. During their time abroad, the family traveled extensively in the Middle East as well as the Far East and throughout Europe. In 1982, Eve and Reuel retired to southern England after thirty years in the desert. After Reuel's death in 1995, Eve moved to Liphook, Hampshire, where she lived until she re-emigrated to the United States in 2002, when she took up residence in Bath, Maine, quite near her daughters.
Evelyn was always a proper English woman, though with a sense of humor, and she loved her family very much. From her war experiences in England to her travels and life in the desert, Eve lived a life of adventure. Reuel's passion for oriental rugs took them from city to village throughout the Middle East, and their shared love of travel took them around the world. She loved to travel with Reuel. She was proud to serve her country during World War II and though she never changed her British citizenship, she was staunchly pro-American, taking great joy in Bath's annual Heritage Days parade every Independence Day and relishing Thanksgiving Day dinner. After she moved to Bath, she soon made the acquaintance of the many people she met on her daily walks and formed a new circle of friends.
She was predeceased by her husband of 50 years, Reuel; her parents, Charles and Eva (Muir) Cooper; her two brothers, Charles and Gerald; and one sister, Gladys. She is survived by three sisters, Sylvia Moseid of Hornnes, Norway, Aileen Stonebanks of South Shields, England, and Kathleen Huizer of Rotterdam, Holland; son Charles of Austin, Texas, daughters Patricia and Ann of Bath; granddaughter Kirsten of Austin, Texas; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Viewing will be Sunday, Dec. 27, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Daigle Funeral Home, 819 High Street, Bath. Eve's funeral will be held at the Daigle Funeral Home on Monday, Dec. 28 at 11 a.m.
Eve's childhood in England between the wars was often one of struggle for the most basic of necessities; those experiences left her with a lifelong mission to help the vulnerable, especially children in need.
"If there ever comes a day where we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." - Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
To honor Eve's legacy of caring for children, the family asks that, instead of flowers, donations be made to SmileTrain.org, a charity that Eve generously supported.