Page 4 - Robeson Living Spring 2021

Evelyn Price A Force to be Reckoned

with and a Southern Lady

By Blake Tyner
I don’t know that I ever saw Evelyn Price without a smile on
her face. She was truly a beautiful person whose source of
beauty was her kind and loving heart. She shared this love and
light with all those she knew from family and friends to cus-
tomers and her community. My first memories of Mrs. Price
start when I was about 5 years old running through the back
door of her clothing store, The Fashion Bar, into the alterations
room where my great-grandmother Esther Lewis was a seam-
stress. Even at that age I recognized her as a kind and beautiful
lady. I would continue to visit the store until it closed in 2005.
I was lucky enough to become even closer to Mrs. Price start-
ing in 2003 when I was hired to be the executive director of
The Robeson County History Museum where she served on
the board. When my first book was published, I think she sold
more copies than anyone. She had a huge stack by the regis-
ter and would tell customers you remember Esther Lewis that
worked for me well her grandson wrote this book and I know
you will love it.

Early Life
We can learn a lot about her early life from an article she wrote
in May 2006 for the museum project Robeson Remembers.
She was born in Lumberton to Wilton Francis Musselwhite
and his wife, Emma Kinlaw. Her father died young at the age
of 30. She was just 13 months old and her younger sister, Fran-
cis, was born a few months after his death. Her mother had
the responsibility of raising two little girls. They moved to her
grandfather’s home. William Duckery Kinlaw was a farmer in
the Howellsville community.

“At this time, he was an elderly man and rented his farms to
sharecroppers as tenants. No one had electricity in this rural
area. We raised our own food and meats. My grandmother
Kinlaw died when I was five years old. We continued to live
with my grandfather, and mother helped to care for him in his
last days. I attended Smith’s School from first grade through
eighth. Smith’s is now Southeastern Academy. It was a won-
derful school and we had great teachers. I enjoyed school and
looked forward to going each day.”

When she was 13 years of age her mother married Neil Barker.
She remembers her stepfather as a wonderful man and who
was good to both she and her sister. They moved to his home
in the Barker Ten-Mile community where at the age of 16 she

Page 4 Robeson Living ~ Spring 2021