Mother and Daughter Die Within Three Days of Each Other

By Leonard E.  Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal and Guide

  Evanne Laurey White, 74, and her daughter, Kesia Davon Carver Stephenson, 55, were very close and supportive of each other.

         The two shared a home after the mother fell ill due to kidney disease in the Cavalier Manor section of Portsmouth.

         It was a shock when the two died within three days of each other. On June 24, after a long battle with her kidney issues,  Evanne Laurey Carver White died.

         Four days later on June 29, the daughter died of complications from Lupus.

         On July 2, the friends and family attended a joint funeral service at the W.T. Fischer Funeral Home in Chesapeake, Virginia.

         “We were all so surprised,” said Rebecca Ruth Helen Williams. She had known Evanne Laurey White since 1961. “Their deaths were so heartfelt and painful for the whole community.”

        “She was a good person and helpful and a wonderful cook,” she continued. “And the daughter was such a good person. They will be missed.” The mother worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for three decades, according to Williams.

        “She worked her way up from a forklift operator to a member of the Quality Control staff,” said Williams. “Her daughter was a driver for the Brinks Security Company. Before then, she was a beautician.”

Evanne Laurey White was born on October 30, 1944.  Williams remembers her as an honorable member of St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church in Portsmouth, where “she sat in the second pew every Sunday to receive her Word for the week”. Williams said she also took her talents to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard from where she had been retired “proudly” for over a decade.

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“We can’t fail to mention how she was still rallying her co-workers for outings and get-togethers,” said Williams.

White was mother to Lynndale “Hollywood” Carver and the late Kesia Stephenson. She was also a grandmother of five—Corey, Travante, Courtney, Bratasia, and Brittany—and a great-grandmother to their children.

According to her obituary, she was the life of the party, loved to play the game spades  and some R&B. Her daughter, Kesia Davon Carver Stephenson, was born on January 4, 1967 to Mr. Jimmy Carver and Evanne White. Williams said Kesia Stephenson’s “footprint on this earth symbolized pure love, faith, and patience. The things in life she cherished most were her family, her relationship with God, knowing that she was strong in her health battles and being a survivor within any circumstance.”

Stephenson leaves her legacy with her husband of 38 years, Charles Stephenson; her two daughters, Brittany and Bratasia Stephenson; her one and only grandson, Devon Javon Boone; her goddaughter, Jamaica Nikkia Sykes; nephews, nieces, beloved family from Florida to Texas; her colleagues, aunts, uncles and Brother Eddie White.