East Alton—Violet Louise (Kingston) Evans, 76, went for her first day of new life in Heaven on Monday, January 19, 2026 at Alton Memorial Hospital.

Born Oct. 8, 1949 in Wood River, she was a daughter of Milton and Mildred (Wiltshire) Kingston, who both preceded her in death, along with infant brothers Jerry Franklin Kingston and Stanley Wade Kingston.  She is survived by her sister, Rita Ford.

Also surviving are her two daughters, Malissa Barr and Shana Kwiatkowski; her best friend and caretaker, Leland Whitehead; grandchildren, Amanda (Jared) Engelke, Ryan (Kayla) Barr, Megan (Ashtin) Wiegand, Joseph Kwiatkowski and Mazey Skinner; great grandchildren, Emma, Aubrey, Kynlee, Nora, Aiden, Blake, Nash, Hadley and Olivia.

Violet received her Master's degree in Education from SIUE and started her career teaching elementary school.  After taking a break from teaching to raise her own children, she started working for IMPACT, Inc. in 1987 as a senior independent living specialist.  She made many friends there, most of who started as her clients that she taught how to become independent with their disability.  She loved teaching Braille to people and showing them blindness would not define them, and that they could do anything they set their minds to.

Violet loved music, especially the older Christian groups and Elvis.  She was a very giving, generous person to those who truly were in need.

We as a family know we will see her in Heaven one day.  We are thankful to the Lord for his healing and can only imagine her being able to see, walk, dance and praise God with relatives and friends that have passed before her.

Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23 at Paynic Home for Funerals, where services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 24.  Burial will follow at Rose Lawn Memory Gardens.

An online guestbook is available at www.paynicfh.com