Evans, Lettie Pate Whitehead, 1872-1953.

Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans (1872-1953), businesswoman and philanthropist, was born in Bedford, Virginia on February 21, 1872. She married Joseph Brown Whitehead, a lawyer practicing in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894. They had two sons, Joseph B. Whitehead, Jr. (1895-1935) and Conkey Pate Whitehead (1898-1940). In 1899, Joseph B. Whitehead and a partner acquired the rights to bottle Coca-Cola across the United States from Asa Candler, the president of The Coca-Cola Company. Following her husband's death, Lettie Pate Whitehead oversaw the Whitehead Coca-Cola bottling interests. In 1931, she married Arthur Kelly Evans, a retired officer in the Canadian Army. She became one of the first female directors of a large American corporation when she joined the board of The Coca-Cola Company in 1934. In addition to her business interests, Evans was a generous philanthropist. She died in her home at Hot Springs, Virginia on November 14, 1953.