Mary Evans arrived at WYSO in January 2018 with a clear mission: to give people like her a chance to share their experiences on the radio. She did exactly that.
Evans died on June 19th at age 42. Her series "ReEntry Stories" gave voice to formerly incarcerated people returning to their communities, stories often overlooked or misunderstood in mainstream media.
Evans joined WYSO as a Miller Fellow while studying at Antioch College. She had been admitted to Antioch while still incarcerated at the Dayton Correctional Institution, where she participated in Sinclair Community College's advanced job training program.
"Mary charged right up to the table and she said 'I want to do this, I know what I want to do, I want tell stories, I want to give people like me a chance to tell their stories on the radio and I will do that,'" said Neenah Ellis, former WYSO general manager and Mary's first mentor, in a tribute recorded last week. "She was so determined. She built her skill set really quickly because she was so focused on what she wanted to do with those skills."
That determination led to ReEntry Stories, which launched in 2019 and ran for five seasons. The series featured conversations between Evans and people navigating life after incarceration, exploring challenges like finding employment, housing, education, and mental health services.
In a 2024 interview on WYSO Weekend, she explained her methodology:
"I just tell them, I just want to have a conversation. And with conversations, when you're telling me about what led up to the events and where you got to now, that's ultimately storytelling," Evans said. "I just have genuine, compassionate, empathetic conversations with these individuals."
Her final season of the series, produced in partnership with the Ohio Innocence Project, focused on wrongful conviction and exoneration, what Evans called "962 years of wrongfully convicted years that people have served in the state of Ohio."
"I wanted to do something different and shed a little light on that," she said.
She co-founded the Journalism Lab in Dayton and was recently named a Kettering Foundation Democracy Fellow, where she worked on voter registration for formerly incarcerated people. She produced segments for multiple WYSO programs, including West Dayton Stories, Loud as the Rolling Sea, and Kaleidoscope.
On June 23rd—what would have been Evans' 43rd birthday—more than 60 people gathered at WYSO for a celebration of her life. Luke Dennis, WYSO's current general manager, opened the memorial service:
"Mary's work absolutely exemplifies the mission of this organization to share the microphone and to share our platform with voices that are too often left out of mainstream media. Mary probably would have said that she felt lucky that she walked into WYSO at the time that she did, but I want you to know that we are so lucky that she did."
Friends and colleagues shared stories that captured Evans' legendary focus and generous spirit. Theron Smith recounted a grocery store trip:
"Mary did not hear not one single word. Her focus was on that grocery list. That's how she got it done," Smith said. "That's the focus my baby had. If she put her heart into something, It's gonna happen."
Timmesha Manson, one of Evans' best friends, whom she met while incarcerated, spoke about Evans' selfless nature:
"Mary was not a selfish person at all. She always shared whatever she had, no matter if it was knowledge, no matter if it was financially, no matter just to share a ride and give you a ride somewhere. Mary shared it."
Evans was also a devoted mother. Her daughter Zalah Scarberry reflected on her mother's sacrifices:
"My mother was truly one of a kind. She missed huge milestones because she wanted to make sure that I had a roof over my head," Scarberry said. "She broke her back for us."
Scarberry also spoke about how her mother brought her into audio production, teaching her to overcome fears when she participated in WYSO Youth Radio in 2023: "My mom told me, even if you don't want to speak in front of people, close your eyes and imagine that I'm the only one in the room."
Truth Garrett, a Community Voices producer and one of Evans' close friends, challenged everyone at the memorial to continue her work:
"One thing we can do is we can look inside of ourself and find something that Mary championed that we match with and go hard on that stuff, get it done."
Neenah Ellis reflected on what Mary taught WYSO listeners:
"She taught us kindly, patiently, gently, what is the right language to use, right? What is the attitude that is generous? She never held back, which is why we all went from 0 to 60, learning so much about her community, because she was willing to share."
Evans' last work for WYSO was a Culture Couch segment featuring NYU professor Nicole Fleetwood, who discussed her book "Making Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration." In the interview, Fleetwood shared how art-making in prison helps people cross racial divides and maintain connection to outside communities, themes that resonated deeply with Mary's own work as an artist who amplified voices from inside the criminal justice system.
Mary Evans' legacy lives on in the stories she told, the doors she opened, and the countless lives she touched. Her work proved that journalism at its best doesn't just report on communities, it emerges from them, guided by authentic relationships and genuine care for the people whose stories need telling.
