Family Matters Most of All

Singer Sara Evans will never forget where she was when she received a telephone call congratulating her on a Top Female Vocalist nomination for the upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards.

Singer Sara Evans will never forget where she was when she received a telephone call congratulating her on a Top Female Vocalist nomination for the upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards.

She had just left her home near New Franklin, Mo. (pop. 1,145), and was sitting in the back seat of a car with her 21-month-old daughter, Olivia, and 4-year-old son, Avery. Her husband, Craig Schelske, was driving the family to Nashville, Tenn., and Evans, 33, had climbed into the back seat so that she could comfort Avery, who was sipping a Sprite to settle his upset stomach.

“He was facing me and I was like, ‘Oh sweetheart,’ and he says, ‘Oh Mommy, my tummy,’ and just throws up,” Evans recalls. “Right about that time, the cell phone rang and it was someone calling to congratulate me on being nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.”

It’s not exactly the glamorous life you might expect of one of the most successful female singers in country music, but Evans wouldn’t have it any other way. “I always knew I wanted to be a mom,” she says. “I think my childhood dream was to be Loretta Lynn, just be a very down-home wife and mother, and a country star too.

“It took all of my twenties for me to really come into my own as a woman in every way,” she says. “I really do credit Avery being born as being the key that unlocked the door to all of those unanswered questions in my mind. This is why I was born, this is what really matters, this is who I am. I can do anything; I’m a mother.”

She’s the first to admit her priorities have changed since becoming a mother. Indeed, rather than worrying about making the fashion magazines with her red carpet outfit at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 26, she’ll be content if there’s none of her daughter’s food on her sleeves.

“Motherhood totally put my career into perspective,” she says. “My career is nothing compared to being a mom. That’s not to say there aren’t things that can really stress me out, but overall, it isn’t what matters. Our family is what matters. I ultimately have to think about what is best for my kids and what is their perspective on what I’m doing. What is Avery’s view on what we’re doing and how we’re living? I’ve decided that there are things that I’m willing to sacrifice for the sake of my children.”

For instance, Evans doesn’t tour as much as most entertainers because she doesn’t believe life on a bus would be the best environment for her children. “I could make so much more money every year if I toured year-round,” she says. “I can’t be Kenny Chesney and just stay on the road. My children would just come undone. When you’re thinking about the happiness of your kids, there’s no difficulty in making those decisions. I want my children to look back on their childhood with joy and happiness.”

Returning to her roots

That’s why Evans and her husband recently purchased a home two miles outside of New Franklin, just 10 miles from her hometown of rural Boonesboro. (The couple also has a 35-acre farm in Stayton, Ore. (pop. 6,816), near where her husband was raised.) While they’ll maintain a condominium in Nashville to use when Evans begins recording her new album in December, they’re committed to giving their children the same family-oriented, small-town upbringing that they both experienced.

“We decided it was really important for them to be with their grandparents,” she says. “Why would we sit in Nashville with no family around when we could just let the kids be with their cousins and grandparents so they have a sense of who they are and where they’re from?

“I think small-town life, simplicity, is a really good value to teach them,” she says. “They don’t constantly have to be at a mall or a movie theater. Just the simple things in life can bring you so much pleasure. That was the main thing I learned from being from a small town.

“There wasn’t a lot to do, but we had motorcycles and horses and creeks and it was a big deal for us to go to the Dairy Queen on Friday night. We would wait the whole week to go to the grocery and we would go to my Granny’s house every Saturday in Columbia, which was 40 minutes away. Things were just so simple, and that’s how it’s going to be for my children. We’re not going to be running to Toys “R” Us every day to get them toys.”

Big dreams in a small town

Evans is the third oldest of seven children raised in Boonesboro, by her mother, Pat Boggs, a school bus driver, and father, Jack Evans, a salesman. She joined her family’s bluegrass band at age 4, belting out country songs such as Delta Dawn and Behind Closed Doors at music festivals, rodeos and PTA meetings. She spent hours toiling away at various chores on her family’s farm. She recorded her first record at age 11, and spent many of her teen-age Saturday nights performing at a local dance hall.

After high school, she attended Central Methodist College in Fayette, Mo., but only for 11 days. Her dreams of a singing career were too strong, so she set her college studies aside, packed her bags and moved to Nashville in 1991. She landed a job waiting tables at a Holiday Inn restaurant and soon met Schelske, a fellow waiter who was also the third oldest of seven from a farming family in a small town.

Deeply in love, Evans put her Nashville career on hold in 1992 to follow him to his home state of Oregon, and the two married a year later. They formed a band and performed nightly in clubs while holding down day jobs at a Portland electronics store.

They moved back to Nashville in 1995, determined to secure a recording contract for Evans. She was discovered by legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, who brought her voice to the attention of RCA Records, and she was immediately offered a deal. She released her first album, Three Chords and the Truth, in 1997. Her 1998 album, No Place That Far, sold more than 500,000 copies and the title track became a No. 1 hit. She followed that with hits such as Born To Fly, I Could Not Ask For More and Perfect, as well as awards from the Country Music Association and Billboard magazine.

“Ever since Avery was born, it’s been the best time of my life,” she says. “Every single day, waking up is like Christmas. God has blessed me over and over. I feel like I’m in this little bubble of grace right now.

“I’m not the hugest star . . . yet,” she says, and then laughs. “But when you talk about the things that matter in life, I really do have it all. Do I want more? Yeah. Am I continually trying to find that next thing? Always. But if it all goes away tomorrow, I still have Craig, Avery, Olivia, my friends and family and my relationship with God.”

Beverly Keel is the entertainment editor of American Profile.

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