Evelyn Lorraine (Schmitt) Wallace was born in Stratford, Conn., on September 18, 1923, to Irma (Bunnell) and Percy J. Schmitt . She attended Bridgeport Junior College and studied isometric draftsmanship at the Academy of Aeronautics, East Elmhurst, New York. In 1945, she moved to New York City where she earned her B.A. in English literature ( Barnard College, 1947) and an M.A. from Columbia University (1951). In May 1954, she married David Harold Wallace, an assistant editor for the New York Historical Society and a Ph.D. candidate in American history at Columbia University. Evelyn worked in the personnel office at Columbia University until shortly before the birth of their first child, John Rogers, in August 1955. They had two more children: Anne Bradstreet (1957) and Edith Bunnell (1959).
In 1957, David joined the National Park Service as Park Historian at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. ESW split her time between raising her children and keeping house. By the time she was fifty years old, she was determined to re-enter the workforce and earned her teaching certificate from Hood College . She began teaching English at St. John's Literary Institute at Prospect Hall in Frederick, Md., in 1973, and soon became head of the English Department. In July 1974, ESW had a mastectomy in order to remove a lump which proved to be malignant. In 1979, due to her declining health, she resigned from her teaching post. A seizure in 1980 left her partially paralyzed, and she was admitted into Homewood Retirement Center in Frederick, Md. She died on August 15, 1981.
From the guide to the Papers, 1934-1981, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
