Eva Mae Chenevert

Eva Mae Gilliard came into this world on March 5, 1925. She left it and began her next journey in life on June 15, 2019. She was 94.

"Aunt Eva was a burst of sunshine and a ball of energy. She was feisty and full of love," said her nephew, Tony Chenevert.

"She was feisty with a capital F," said her niece, Shelly. "I spent entire summers with her at Shay Lake, and she always said I was her daughter. Then I discovered every niece was her daughter too."

One of ten children from a very close-knit family, Eva grew up on the east side of Detroit where she and her siblings attended Duffield Elementary and Miller High Schools. She went on to attend Wayne State University.

Eva met the love of her life, Theophile Louis Chenevert II, and they married in November 1943. He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, while she worked in a factory as a “Rosie the Riveter” making airplane skins.

"They were so close and such a loving couple, completely devoted to each other...you couldn't think of one without thinking of the other," said Tony.

Eva’s husband and her son, Theophile (Pete) Chenevert, III, her mother, Etta Simpson, and her father, Eugene, as well as sisters Ruby, Josephine, Vivian and Marcellette, and brothers, Eugene, Alvin, Douglas, Julius, and Bernard, all preceded her in death.

She is survived by her sister-in-law, Charlotte Gailliard, and a rather large number of loving nieces and nephews, her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter, Eva (Bunchie) Chenevert.

"She was the one who raised me," said Bunchie. "I am proud and thankful to have had her as my mother, my grandmother, for all these years. Being a stubborn Pisces, she would always let me know who was in charge. You couldn't get anything by her, either, but she would allow people to be who they were."

"She represented an era of elders who made sure they set an example for the world ahead. I'm going to miss her smile and laughter."

Those of us left behind will miss her too.