Lettie Pate Evans
1872 – 1953
Lettie Pate Whitehead assumed control of her husband’s business interests when he died only seven years after he and a friend had come up with the idea of selling Coca-Cola in bottles. She served as Chairman of the Board and President of the firms that were the major assets of the family fortune. Mrs. Whitehead, who later married Arthur Kelly Evans, became one of the first woman directors of a major American corporation when she was appointed to the board of The Coca-Cola Company in 1934, a position she held for almost 20 years. She generously shared her wealth both during her life and after her death. She created and left much of her estate to the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation to support charity, education and religion. The estates of her sons, who died before she did, also support charitable foundations. In her lifetime, she contributed to more than 130 different charities.
During World War II Mrs. Evans was awarded the Order of the Purple Heart and Wings of Britain for her personal donations to the Queen’s Fund for air raid victims. 
Year inducted: 1998
Learn more about Lettie Pate Evans 
Special Collections & Archives
Manuscript Sources For Women's History
EVANS, LETITIA PATE 1872-1953 (#78)
Papers, 1947-1956; 1 partial box
This Atlanta philanthropist was the first woman to serve on the Board of Trustees of Emory University. Evans' papers include correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, brochures, and genealogical information.
Finding aids: inventory, EUCLID, RLIN
Special Collections, Robert W. Woodruff Library
Emory University, Atlanta
404-727-6872
