She led Girl Scouts in Des Plaines for 30 years
In December, Evalyn J. Mikes received a rare memento from the Girl Scouts of America: her 70-year membership pin.
Family members and colleagues in the Girl Scouts say her involvement was a cherished part of her life, and the pin reflected that.
Mrs. Mikes, a native of rural Lake County who lived more than 50 years in Des Plaines and most recently lived in Monroe, Wis., passed away Thursday. She was 88.
"Her years of service to Troop 64 and to the Illinois Girl Scouts Crossroads Council influenced and strengthened hundreds of Girl Scouts," said Sandra Royer, senior director of communications for the Vernon Hills-based Girl Scout council.
Mrs. Mikes grew up on a farm in Lake County and attended Libertyville High School. However, after training at St. Luke's Nursing School, and later working for the Visiting Nurse Association, both in Chicago, she settled in Des Plaines to be closer to the city.
Colleagues say Mrs. Mikes started Troop 64 back in the early 1950s and led it for the next 30 years. It originally met at the Congregational Church of Des Plaines and was devoted to Senior Girl Scouts, or teens in high school.
"She was very enthusiastic, and was a nurturing person with a can-do attitude," recalls Joy Juvinall, a former troop member and leader, now of Falmouth, Ky.
Troop 64 was designated as a "trailblazer troop," created to take its members hiking and camping. Besides her rural upbringing and nurse's training, Mrs. Mikes drew on her own years as a Girl Scout, to help lead its members.
Juvinall was a member from 1958 to 1962, and she vividly remembers taking her first trip, a primitive camping expedition in the Great Smoky Mountains.
"We set up camp every night and broke camp every morning," Juvinall recalls. "Sometimes we slept in tents, and other times we slept outdoors, under the stars."
Other years, Mrs. Mikes led her girls on camping trips near Washington, D.C., and to the nature encampment in Wyoming at the Girl Scout National Center West, as well as to Montreal, where they camped one mile above the city with their counterparts, the Canadian Girl Guides.
It was a Girl Scout exhibit at the Des Plaines History Center, that first drew Mrs. Mikes to volunteer there, back in 1990, after she had turned over the troop.
"It was one of most popular exhibits, even to this day," says Joy Matthiessen, executive director of the History Center. "Thousands of Girl Scouts came through it."
Mrs. Mikes stayed on at the History Center long after the exhibit, coming every Thursday to the museum to volunteer. Officials say she did everything from setting up an inventory of the collection, to helping maintain the historic Kinder House, to updating the archives.
"She did everything around here, including clipping news articles from the Daily Herald," Matthiessen says. "Even when she moved to her apartment in Monroe, we still sent her copies of the paper to clip the articles."
Mrs. Mikes was divorced with no children. She is survived by her brother, Ralph (Lillian) Small of Green Valley, Ariz.; nieces Sharon (Gilbert) Mitchell of McConnell, Ill.; and Susan (John) McCormick of Grayslake; as well as three grandnieces.
Visitation will take place at 10 a.m. before an 11 a.m. funeral service Friday at the First United Methodist Church, 666 Graceland Ave. in Des Plaines.