RAPID CITY -- Evelyn Olive (Creighton) Oney, 92, Rapid City, died Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009, at Rapid City Regional Hospital leaving a mourning family and host of friends. Evelyn was born March 18, 1917, to Marie (Peterson) and James Irving Creighton on their farm five miles from Wessington Springs. An older brother, Herbert, and younger sister, Marjorie, completed the family. She was baptized in the Methodist Church and attended a Sunday school held at the Happy Hill country schoolhouse. As a young girl, Evie often ran out to the cistern and hauled up the bucket of cold cream for her mother's baking. She gathered eggs and picked up corn cobs to burn in the stove. Inspired by her mother, Evie later became an excellent cook and baker. Evie and her siblings rode their horse, Trix, to Madden Country School, two miles from the farm. When the snow was deep, their father hitched the horses to a bobsleigh and took the children to school. During high school, Evie boarded with Dr. and Mrs. Foster and went with them on a memorable trip to Niagara Falls and Washington, D.C. She took violin lessons, sang in the choir, and entered several singing contests at Wessington Springs High School before graduating in 1936. By then, Evie had set a goal to become a beautician with a shop of her own. She graduated from Schuyler School of Cosmetology in Sioux Falls and went on to manage a beauty shop in Willow Lake, attending dances with her girlfriends in her spare time. Later, she bought a beauty shop in Huron where her clientele included Hubert Humphrey's wife and mother, and George McGovern's mother, as well as the wife of a pilot from whom Evie took several flying lessons. It was in Huron that she met and married Raymond Heyer in 1940. World War II separated them, but after the war they resumed a happy life together. In May 1950, Evie and Ray adopted a son, Ronald, when he was four days old. They moved to Rapid City in January 1954, but Ray, who ironically had survived the war, died from a heart attack the following month. A grieving Evie established a beauty shop in the basement of their home on East Van Buren Street so she could earn a living and still tend to her son. She later met Wilmer Oney whom she married on August 11, 1956. Their daughter, Rhonda, was born the following year. In 1977, Evie and Willie moved to a home in the country near Black Hawk where they lived and gardened until health issues forced a move back to Rapid City in 2006. Always energetic and extremely social, Evie loved people and enjoyed many activities. She served as a den mother for a Cub Scout troop when Ron was young. She worked as a beautician for over 60 years. She took up china painting, became a member of the Paint and Fire China Club, and received national recognition when photos of her work were featured in a china painting magazine. She was a long-time member of a local women's club, a charter member of the Black Hills Ramblers Chapter of the Good Sam Camping Club, and a member of the Canyon Lake Senior Center. She loved making quilts, raising flowers and gardening, playing cards with other couples, bowling, and golfing. To her immense delight, she scored her first hole-in-one in golf at age 89. She never lost her love for cooking and baking, and she took great pleasure in sharing her recipes with others. More than anything, Evie loved her family and friends. A broken hip prevented her from addressing the Christmas cards she intended to send this year, but she had planned to enclose a poem that concluded, The biggest gift that God can give is knowing friends like you. She was preceded in death by her parents; siblings, Herbert Creighton and Marjorie Wehrkamp; husbands, Raymond Heyer in 1954 and Wilmer Oney on Oct. 9, 2009; beloved mother-in-law and friend, Minnie Craven Oney; and special niece, Pam Wehrkamp Mason. Survivors include her son, Ronald Oney and wife, Sharon, Rapid City; her daughter, Rhonda Hayes and husband, Jeff, Sioux Falls; five grandchildren, Michael Oney and wife, Amanda, of Marshall, Minn., Anna Kuestermeyer and husband, Kevin, of Tyler, Minn., Matthew Oney, St. Paul, Minn., and Jenna and Josh Hayes, Sioux Falls; five great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Maxine Mills of Grants, N.M.; a brother-in-law, Norman Oney of Windsor Locks, Conn.; and several nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Thursday, December 31, 2009, and funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday, January 1, 2010, both at Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home, Rapid City, with her son-in-law, Rev. Jeff Hayes, officiating. Interment will be in the Black Hills National Cemetery, Sturgis, at 9 a.m. Saturday, January 2.