John V. Evans
John Victor Evans Sr. was an American politician and served as Idaho’s governor from 1977 to 1987.
Evans was 27 years old when he was elected to the Idaho state senate in 1952. He was re-elected for two more terms. In 1960, he was elected mayor of Malad City and served until 1966. In 1969, he became a state senator again and served as minority leader from 1969 to 1975.
He ran for lieutenant governor of Idaho with Cecil Andrus in the 1974 election and took office in 1975. When Andrus accepted an appointment to become the Secretary of the Interior in the Carter administration, Evans become governor and finished Andrus’s term. He was then elected governor in 1978 and re-elected in 1982. He was the second member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be elected governor of Idaho.
Evans married Lola Daniels in 1945 and they were the parents of five children. While Evans was serving as governor, his 29-year-old son John was the target of a foiled kidnapping attempt.
In January 1987, Evans became president of the family owned D. L. Evans Bank in Burley, Idaho.
He was born on January 18, 1925, in Malad, Idaho, and died on July 8, 2014, in Boise, Idaho. He served in the Infantry during World War II and graduated from Stanford University in 1951.
