Ernestine D. Evans

Ernestine Durán Evans (September 17, 1917 – June 9, 2010) was a Spanish American legislator and civil servant. She served as Secretary of State of New Mexico from 1967 to 1970 and from 1975 to 1978.

Life
The daughter of a rancher and a schoolteacher, she was born in Alamosa, Colorado and grew up on a ranch in El Rito, New Mexico. She was educated at the Spanish American Normal School and earned a teaching certificate. She subsequently taught school at a lumber camp. Evans married Alcadio Griego. Her husband was running for the state legislature for the Democratic Party in 1941 when he died of spinal meningitis; she was asked by the party to run in his place in the election. She was elected and served a two-year term in the New Mexico House of Representatives. She then worked as an administrator for a military hospital during World War II. In 1945, she became an administrator in the New Mexico land office and, in 1953, a manager of finance for the state board of education. Evans was administrative secretary for two state governors and a member of the legislative council. In 1967, she was elected Secretary of State; she was elected again in 1975.

In 1986, she published Turquoise and Coral, stories about people from northern New Mexico.