Eva Louise Christy

On July 28, 1925, Eva Louise Bache was born in a little house in Belleville, Kansas. Ninety-nine years later, on September 6, 2024, surrounded by her children, she was called home to be reunited with her Heavenly father, loving husband and two sons who had been patiently awaiting her arrival. Eva was the fourth of the six children of Conrad and Eva Bache. The home she was born in was located directly across the street from the Belleville Creamery and Ice Cream Factory owned by her father and mother. Eva and her siblings all worked in the creamery, waiting on customers who arrived by horse or vehicle. Saturday nights were especially busy as the farmers made their weekly trip to town for supplies and usually some ice cream. One benefit of owning a creamery was an abundance of available ice cream. Eva enjoyed ice cream virtually every day of her ninety-nine years, including multiple times in her final days. When Eva was sixteen, her father sold the creamery and moved the family to California. Eva graduated from Burbank High School before going to work at Lockheed until the end of World War II. She met her future husband when LaRue (Chris) Christy and his best friend Smitty were on leave from the Navy. The guys walked into the home of Smitty’s girlfriend only to discover that his girlfriend had moved and another family lived there. Smitty never wasted an opportunity and asked the daughter of the current residents to go on a blind date. She agreed on the condition that they would make it a double date with her best friend, Eva. A marriage proposal soon followed after Eva and Chris were stranded upside down in a stalled Loop-O-Loop Plane at the amusement park. Chris proposed and Eva said yes, but it would have to wait until they were back on the ground! On July 23, 1946, they were married in Las Vegas. The newlyweds headed to Yellow Stone Park and then east to visit her sister Margaret in Wisconsin. Before returning to California, LaRue suggested they could drive through Wakita, Oklahoma to visit another friend from his military days. LaRue had been a welder in the navy and this Oklahoma buddy’s family just happened to own a welding shop. Dad was offered and accepted a job. Eva was less than happy about the change of plans because she loved living on the coast and being close to family. LaRue promised they would just give it a try and could return to California if they weren’t happy. Eva was not, but the promise to return to California was never again discussed. Their first two children, Kathleen and Diana were born in Oklahoma before LaRue and Grant Sechler decided to start their own business. Both families moved to Anthony and C & S Welding became a reality. Eva and LaRue’s family continued to grow, eventually adding eight more children. Eva was a stay-at-home mom when the children were small but eventually had to acknowledge that providing for so many children was definitely NOT ‘cheaper by the dozen’! She began working as a nurse’s aide and private duty nurse at the Anthony Hospital to supplement the family’s income and later assumed the bookkeeping chores for the business until their retirement in 1983. David, one of their four sons, purchased the business which had by then become Christy Welding. Both Eva and LaRue had always enjoyed being active with community, church and family. These activities continued after their retirement, but they added travel, gardening, card games and visits with their children and grandchildren to their busy lives. They shared lots of adventures until LaRue passed away in 2002 after fifty-six years of marriage. Eva remained in Anthony and continued being active in the community, where her participation included serving on the boards of the city library and Anthony Hospital, and volunteering with Hospice. She mentored elementary school children with their reading and was heavily involved in various ministries at Sacred Heart Parish, including Altar Society. She continued her support of children living in poverty through the Christian Foundation for Children and Adults (now UNBOUND), a charity that was dear to her, as she and LaRue were some of the earliest sponsors and together traveled to Guatemala and San Salvador to meet their sponsored children. In 2009, Eva moved to Wichita to be closer to her children and to help care for her oldest son, Don, who was battling cancer. She found a new Parish and new friends but did not slow down. She actually seemed to be on a mission to check off every entry of an invisible bucket list! She loved adventure and rarely refused opportunities to try new experiences. For as long as her health allowed and one of her children was available to be a travel companion, she continued to experience all the world offered! She went swimming with Dolphins, rode an elephant in the jungle in Thailand, skydived with seven of her descendants at the age of 89, and climbed aboard a camel at the age of 92. Her love of travel led her to Europe three times. In addition to visits to see family in the States, her travels included New York City, Washington D.C., Jamaica, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam, cruises to Alaska, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, and the Panama Canal, and multiple visits to destinations in the Caribbean and Panama. Her four loves in life were God, family, children and ice cream. (Not always necessarily in that order!) Through their examples, Eva and LaRue passed to their children a love of God, their Catholic faith, charitable works, and a strong work ethic. Eva was preceded in death by her parents, Conrad and Eva Bache, brother CL ‘Bud’ Bache, sisters Margaret Sheard, Mary Helen Cross, and Cecelia Dawson, her husband, Leon LaRue Christy, and sons Richard Jay and Donald LaRue Christy. She is survived by her sister, Bernice Butler, daughters Kathleen (Russ) Corbitt, Diana (Gene) Woodle, Patricia Gates, Deborah (Terry) Miller, Connie (Binh) Le, Theresa (Mark) Floyd, daughter-in-law, Jo Ann Christy (wife of Donald), and sons David (Judy) and Mark (Diana) Christy, in addition to 25 grandchildren, 56 great grandchildren and 4 great-great grandchildren. The Rosary will be held at 6:30 pm, Tuesday, September 10, 2024; Funeral Mass will be at 10:00 am, Wednesday, September 11, 2024, both at the Church of the Resurrection Catholic Church, Bel Aire, Kansas. Graveside services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Forest Park Cemetery in Anthony, KS. Memorials have been established with Unbound, 1 Elmwood Dr., Kansas City, KS 66103; Priest Retirement & Education Fund, 424 N. Broadway, Wichita, KS 67202. Services in care of Downing & Lahey East Mortuary.

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