Mary Evelyn McNeill was born in Lee County, NC, in 1929, the second child of Lacy Dixon McNeill and Mary Lee Watson McNeill. The family lived on a tobacco farm and she attended nearby Jonesboro School. Evelyn attended Elon College, UNC, and Duke University, worked as a physical therapist in the Army and in private practice, and earned her Ph.D. in neuroanatomy from the Medical College of Virginia. In 1972 Evelyn became assistant professor of anatomy at the newly-created East Carolina University School of Medicine. Three times the med students chose her for the basic science teaching award. She also weathered an unequal pay structure and paved the way for an enhanced culture of gender equality at the med school. The experience fortified Evelyn, and positive feelings remain: "The content of my specialty carried me forward by stimulating me. But it is the relationships with my students and colleagues that I treasure now." During her active retirement, Evelyn completed a memoir.