Funeral services for Evelyn Kiker, 94, of Elida & Portales, will be held at 10:00 A.M., Monday, February 6, 2023, in the Wheeler Mortuary Chapel with Pastor Kelly Fulfer officiating. Burial will follow in the Portales Cemetery with Ned Kiehne, Kurt Kiehne, Hershel Dixon, Mike Archibeque, Manuel Jasso, Sean Belden and Randy Mitchell serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will be Win Askew, Wayne & Lela Victor, T.L. & Pat Brook, Greg Burris, Sharon Lieb, Rock Burris, Lucille Sadler, Linda Rippee, Betty Lambirth and Boyd Miller.
Bobbie Evelyn (Askew) Kiker was born on October 2, 1928, in Tipton, Oklahoma, to the home of Gladys Marie (Gardner) and Dell Robinson Askew, and died on February 1, 2023, in Clovis, New Mexico.
Evelyn and her family moved from Oklahoma to Garrison, New Mexico in 1935. She attended school at Richland through the fifth grade. At that time, the Richland School consolidated with the Causey School system from which she graduated in 1947.
Her formative years were filled with family, work, music and church. She was the eldest of 37 grandchildren. She and her younger brother, Win, would hoe cotton in the summer and miss a month of school in the fall during the harvest. The money they earned would buy their school clothes for the entire year.
Evelyn married Billy Valton Kiker in September of 1947 in the parsonage of Calvary Baptist Church. They lived in Portales for three years, then in 1950 moved to Elida where they farmed and ran a dairy for the next 40 years. Evelyn has felt a special connection to Elida and a love for the community ever since. While living in Elida, she was very active in the First Baptist Church where she was the song leader and a Sunday school teacher for many years.
Evelyn loved books and was a voracious reader her entire life. She was the volunteer librarian at the Elida library for several years. She also loved to sing and performed many solos for church and community activities. In addition, she played the piano for church and for the enjoyment of family and friends.
In 1990, she and Billy retired from the dairy and farming business and moved to Portales. She volunteered as a Pink Lady for the Hospital Auxiliary for eleven years. They became members of the Emmanuel Baptist Church where she relished teaching her “senior” Sunday school class. She would study all week in preparation for her lessons and never disappointed the ladies in her class.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents Dell & Marie Askew; her husband Billy Kiker; her brother Kelly Askew, and her son Johnny Dell Kiker.
She is survived by her daughter Kathleen Kiehne & husband Arkie of Portales, daughter-in-law Reita Kiker of Hondo, NM; sister Gale Serpa & husband Joe of Manteca, CA; brother, Win Askew of Clovis; grandchildren Lori Landfair & husband Rich, Ned Kiehne, Kurt Kiehne & wife Regina and Amy Bell & husband Matt, and eight great grandchildren Jack, Charlotte, Cecily Evelyn (her namesake), George Bell, Blake and Andrew Landfair, Kole Kiehne and Kalihann Kiehne.
The family would like to express their thanks to the staff of Retirement Ranch. Linda, Brenda and Gloria, your expert and loving support was invaluable to our family.
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