Mary Jane Evans

About Mary Jane Evans

Mary Jane Evans (née Mary Jane Francis; 3 February 1888 – 25 February 1922) was a Welsh teacher, preacher, and stage actress best known for solo recitations and dramatic monologues. Born in Godre’r Graig, she was the daughter of Mary Ann Francis (née Hutchings) and Charles Francis, conductor of Ystalyfera’s town band. As a girl she won multiple eisteddfod recitation competitions, sometimes using the pseudonym “Llaethferch” (“milkmaid”) because she delivered milk locally. She studied at a private college in Carmarthen run by Joseph Harry, taught for a period, and later attended the Royal Academy of Music to improve her command of English, which she used less in daily life in Wales. In 1919 she married musician William David Evans and they lived in Maerdy in the Rhondda valley. Later she served as an adjudicator at the National Eisteddfod. A demanding schedule of personal appearances strained her fragile health; she died aged 34, and her body was returned to Godre’r Graig for burial. A Welsh-language memoir, “Llaethferch. Er Cof,” edited by Ben Davies (her chapel minister), was published in Ystalyfera in 1923.