Judith Beulah Evered

Judith was born on May 16, 1927, in Perth, Australia, and died at the age of 98 on June 24, 2025, at the Casa Cambria senior living facility in Santa Barbara, California. She lived a life full of adventure, learning and service. She was a passionate activist for peace, a committed environmentalist, a life-long learner and teacher, and a published author. Judith loved all people in a nonjudgmental way, and was serious about nutrition, health and physical fitness. A gifted tennis and field hockey player in her youth, into her 90’s, she still enjoyed long walks on the beach. Though a globe-trotter by nature, she made Santa Barbara home for 55 years.

“Good Lord, love a duck” was one of Judith’s favorite sayings, a whimsical expression of delighted surprise. Common in her native West Australia, where she earned a BA with honors at the University of West Australia, it is a phrase also at home in her adopted England, where she studied at the University of London School of Economics. Her lifelong, around-the-world adventure started with a passenger ship from Perth to London and was completed decades later with a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, followed by a train ride across the outback to Perth. While living in London, she met her future husband, Roger D. Evered, on a train headed for a ski trip in Switzerland, as she sought out a fourth for a bridge game. “You will do”, she reportedly told him and he did for a quarter century.

In 1961, they emigrated to the United States, living first in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a year and then settling in Huntington Beach, California. There, Judith taught and learned at UCLA Extension, Long Beach Community College and Orange Coast College. In 1970, Judith moved with her sons to Santa Barbara, where she founded POISE, an education advocacy organization, served on the Isla Vista Recreation and Park Board and completed a master’s degree in education at UCSB. In 2016, she was recognized by the Woman’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) with their National Long Service Award.

Most of all, Judith was a beloved mother and a loving grandmother. She passed away with her sons at her side – Duncan James Evered (Sharon) of Baltimore, Randolf Brett Evered of Santa Barbara and Timothy Craig Evered of Houston and is survived by her six grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her first-born son, Jon Huxley Evered and her younger brother, John Maitland Carter and was buried at the Goleta Cemetery in a small private service.