Evelyn Sadler, 82, Lone Pine

Graveside services for Evelyn Franks Sadler will be Monday, October 12, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at Griffin Hill Cemetery in Lone Pine with Rev. Steve Davis officiating. Burial follow under the direction of Melancon Funeral Home, Bunkie.
Mrs. Sadler, age 82, of Lone Pine, passed away on Friday, October 9, 2020 at the Oakdale Community Hospital. In her younger days she had been a telephone operator in Bunkie. She was preceded in death by her husband, Darrell "Bo" Sadler; her parents, Walter and Lula Mae Franks and her siblings, Doty Hillyard, Jean Kilgore and Pete Franks,
Evelyn Sadler was a strong advocate for homeschooling. In 1977 she took her three young children, Terry, Bruce and Patti out of the public school system in Evangeline Parish and defied the laws in place at that time. She and her husband, Darrell "Bo" put their own freedoms in jeopardy to give their children a better education than they had been receiving in the public school system at the time. They were arrested and even convicted of violation of the laws in place at the time. But at the trial when the judge made his ruling he said "that our education system was in a sad state when a mother who had no college or formal training as a teacher could take her children out of the public school system, teaching them at home with only her Bible and a set of encyclopedias, and could bring their reading levels and other skills not only to their grade levels but several years above their grade levels." It was because of this mother's sacrifices that our laws where changed to allow homeschooling in this state.
She is survived by her two sons, Terrance Sadler and his wife, Reiko, of Boyce and Bruce Sadler of Broken Arrow, OK; her two daughters, Lacy Morales and husband, Brad Stallings, of Alexandria and Patti Sadler-Welch of Galvez; her two sisters, Patsy Kadlecek and husband, David, of Hay Springs, NE and Rita Franks of Ferriday; eight grandchildren, Sara Morales, Michael Sadler, Robert Musashi Sadler, Amanda-Salski Sadler, Tristan Welch, Zoie Welch, Kendall Kelley and Alex Stallings and two great grandchildren, Marley Sadler and Liam Stallings.
Memorials in honor of Evelyn Sadler may be made to the Lone Pine Assembly of God Church - 3375 Hwy 115 - Bunkie, LA 71322.