Jimmy Mann Evans ~ Biographical Sketch

State of Tennessee
Department of State
Tennessee State Library and Archives
403 Seventh Avenue North
Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0312

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
COMMISSIONER JIMMY EVANS
RECORDS
1987-1990

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Jimmy Mann Evans
Commissioner Jimmy Evans, who served as commissioner of the Department of Transportation from 1987-1990 during the McWherter administration, was a former owner and president of Pioneer Contracting Company in his hometown of Dyersburg, Tennessee. He was born in 1932 in Jackson, Tennessee, but grew up in Paris where he was captain of the Grove High School baseball and basketball teams. He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals but was prevented from pursuing a big-league career because of a back injury. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Lambuth College and a law degree from Vanderbilt. He was a past president and member of the Tennessee Roadbuilders Association, and was a member of the Dyersburg Board of Education.

Evans died of cancer on December 7, 1992.