No formal services are currently planned for Evelyn McCauley, 86, of Portales.
Minnie Evelyn McCauley was born June 6, 1931 in Portales to the home of Mary Ola (Smith) and Ralph Slocum Browne and died Feb. 1, 2018 in Clovis, NM. The family moved to McCamey, TX when she was a girl. She graduated from high school in McCamey in 1949. She was a very talented musician. Mrs McCauley had a beautiful singing voice, and made several records during her early life. She served as church pianist for the churches where she was a member, including Westside Baptist Church in Portales where she was for several years.
In 1973 in Artesia, she was married to Charles T. McCauley. He was a ranch foreman for the Yates Cattle Company, and they worked at several different locations for the company. Mrs. McCauley loved the outdoors, and enjoyed walking in the mountains, camping fishing and riding horses. Like any ranch wife, she cooked huge meals for all of the hands at roundups and brandings. During her many walks, she had collected a large number of arrowheads.
She is survived by two daughters and a son-in-law, Linda and Scott Putzier and Pam Holifield of Portales; five grandchildren, Danny Pearson, Amanda Kiker, Brandi Walker Rains, Shane King and Kevin King; two great-grandchildren, Kimberly and Heagan Rains; and two sisters and a brother-in-law, Mary and Buddy Sanford of Alamogordo and Nona Boyd of Carlsbad, NM. She was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, Ralph Browne, and by her husband, Charley McCauley who died Jan. 24, 2016.
