Evelyn Renee Richardson, Hartford activist for single mothers and struggling families, dies at 54

Evelyn Richardson, a Hartford native and advocate, worked to foster pride in her North End neighborhood with block parties, Bible studies, coat collections and community gardens.

Thanks to Richardson, planters prettied up street corners in her rough neighborhood and a patchy lot on Enfield Street was transformed with raised gardening beds for fresh fruits and vegetables. The grass may have been greener in other parts of the city, but Richardson believed in watering her own — and pruning the flowers just right, so they bloomed better every year.

She was a friend, a sister, a confidant, loved ones said this week. Richardson, who balanced her commitment to Hartford with her devotion to seven children and 10 grandchildren, died Dec. 21. She was 54.

“If ever Hartford had a guardian angel of this lifetime, it would have been Evelyn Richardson,” close friend Samariya Smith said this week. “She was a pillar in this community with her selflessness, love and compassion for her community and the people in it.”

On Dec. 28, the day Richardson was laid to rest, the city of Hartford issued a proclamation offering thanks for her years of activism and advocacy.

Between her jobs in child care, patient care and cleaning, Richardson would crochet for the sick, deliver food to the needy, and collect jackets and toys so neighborhood children had presents under their Christmas trees. That’s what she was doing on Dec. 17, sorting and wrapping donations, when she took a moment to reflect on her work through Daughters of Eve, the organization Richardson founded years ago to empower single mothers like herself.

“I must say I am humbled and becoming teary eyed as I type this,” she wrote in a post on Facebook. “Because if it were not because of the many people who invest in Daughters of Eve and the countless donors who support United Way, Marine Toys for Tots, and Daughters of Eve directly, I couldn’t be a resource.”

“She was always willing to go that extra mile,” close friend Carol Perry, 47, said.

Perry met Richardson, then a young mother of four, when they both took jobs at the new Rite Aid on Albany Avenue about 30 years ago. Even then, Richardson always seemed to be helping people in the neighborhood — paying attention to their problems and seeking out information to help them, about social services and apartments and education.

About 15 years later, Richardson spearheaded her new project for women in the community, Daughters of Eve, recalls Perry. They held meetings in the Salvation Army on Nelson Street and talked about caring for children through the pain of addiction, neglect, abuse and poverty.

They organized back-to-school cookouts and block parties, connected struggling mothers to social services agencies and worked to hold Hartford’s political leaders accountable, especially for the quality of city schools.

“She was a big advocate for that,” said her daughter Juanita Richardson, 37. “She was sometimes labeled a troublemaker for holding people to what they were supposed to do and what they’d promised us. But she also believed in holding ourselves accountable for our contributions.”

Evelyn Richardson also sought out stories of other Hartford helpers.

She would interview them for her online TV show, “For The Greater Good,” which aired on the local network AccessTV.org.

Richardson liked to draw out peoples’ stories and motivations, to find out how their pasts led them to activism and volunteering, Juanita Richardson said: “She kind of gave them an outlet to just shine.”

Over the years, Richardson kept her organization small so it would serve her neighbors while leaving her enough time, energy and money to care for her grandchildren. It was one more way she lead by example, showing other single mothers what they were capable of.

“She took all the trials and tribulations she had to endure and turned it into a positive for her,” Perry said. “And also to show her children, ‘You can do it too,’ to show the community, ‘You can do it, too, come on, we can do it together.'”

Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.