Louise Evans

1st Woman elected to Planning & Zoning Commission
October 2, 1967

Louise became interested in being a member of the town planning and zoning commission as a result of a sub-committee she led as a member of The League of Women Voters. The sub-committee discovered that the zoning board of appeals was not following state statutes, passing items with a majority vote rather than a two-thirds vote as was required. They subsequently corrected the matter…and Louise was hooked!

First, she needed to tell the Chairman of the Republican Party of her interest so Louise went to his house, knocked on the door half scared to death, and she told him “I would like to run for the nomination.” He looked at her slightly amazed but recovered quickly and told her that she would need to win at the caucus. To do so, Louise should get as many registered Republican as possible out to vote for her.

“I did, and to everyone’s amazement, including my own, I won the nomination along with Joe Carino. He was most gracious and accepted the fact that I was running along with him.”-Louise Evans

It was an exhilarating time for Louise and she set out to visit every house in town. The slogan for the party that year was “GOP IS THE KEY”. She did a lot of walking on weekdays during school hours and especially on weekends handing out flyers. On October 2, 1967, after all the votes were counted, Louise was elected the first women in South Windsor to serve on P & Z. It was an honor she would enjoy for over 40 years.

“At my first meeting another member asked me why I had run. I’ll never forget how he told me that it would have been more appropriate if I ran for the Board of Education!”-Louise Evans