From open plains to outer space, Ron Evans experienced a remarkable journey. He was a Kansan who played a record-setting role in the United States’ final mission to the moon.
The year was 1972. NASA had planned for a series of moon missions but budget limitations cancelled additional lunar flights. Instead, NASA changed the focus of future flights to the space shuttle and lower earth orbital flights.
Meanwhile, NASA moved forward with what would be the final deep space manned mission to date. It was named Apollo 17. The person selected to serve as command module pilot on Apollo 17 was a Kansan, Ron Evans.
Evans was born in the rural northwest Kansas community of St. Francis, population 1,329 people. Now, that’s rural.
Evans had two younger brothers, Larry and Jay. When Larry came down with liver cancer, the family relocated to Topeka to be closer to treatment. Unfortunately, Larry passed away in 1951.
Brother Jay played football for K-State. By his senior year, he was team captain and was second in the Big 8 in yards receiving. Jay went on to play in the NFL for the Denver Broncos.
