Evalee I. Treen
Evalee I. Treen, or Evie as she was known to most of us, was born on November 20, 1933, in Great Bend Kansas, to parents Leonard and Dorothy Bary. In 1942 the family moved, first to Santa Rosa, California, and then to Springfield, Oregon. Her parents divorced in 1943, and she and her mother moved to Salinas, California, while her father went into the U.S. Navy to serve during World War II.
Her early school years were in the Salinas schools, then she moved to Soledad and attended high school at Gonzales High School in 1951. Her mother had remarried, and soon afterward there were additions to the family: first Carol Ann, then Connie Lynn, both of whom survive today.
Evie was a person who liked excitement, new adventures, and who always wanted to experience some things that others might not want to. In 1957 Evie moved to Santa Barbara and was employed by an aerial survey company. She met and eventually married George “Woody” Treen in 1969. Their life together was always exciting. Before meeting Woody, she had already earned her private pilot’s license, and she flew all around the state. After their marriage Evie got her multi engine rating and she flew a twin-engine aircraft. She was able to fly as co-pilot in two transcontinental, all women’s air races across the United States. She and Woody took many trips to Mexico in airplanes. Her beloved Woody passed away in 1998.
Evie worked for the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office for over 30 years, both full-time and later as an extra-help employee. The Sheriff’s Office was her second family. The one thing she was most proud of was the Law Enforcement Exchange Program that she created through the Santa Barbara Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Association, the City of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. As a result, there was an exchange of visits and training between the Sheriff’s Office and the Puerto Vallarta Municipal Police Department. This lasted over 15 years and expanded to include Provincial and Federal agencies. That training has been credited in saving the lives of a number of Mexican law enforcement officers. For her dedicated work in coordinating this program she was awarded the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office Distinguished Service Medal.
Evie belonged to, or was associated with, a number of other organizations over her many years. These included the 99’s All Women’s Pilots, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contest and Records Board. She served as an Accident Prevention Counselor for the FAA, and she was named the first person to be appointed as the FAA monitor of the Point Mugu annual airshow, a big honor and responsibility.
Evie was also a long-time member of the Santa Barbara Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Association, and she served as its President for three different years. When Evie discovered that many people in Puerto Vallarta died in diving accidents because they did not have a hyperbaric chamber available, she was able to organize the donation of one to the community. She even arranged forthe U.S. Navy to deliver it in a C- 130! To this day, that hyperbaric chamber is operated by the Mexican Navy at its Puerto Vallarta Navy base.
In her lifetime Evie traveled to many places around the world, even living in Alaska and Venezuela, but the place that captured her heart was Kenya in East Africa. In 2005 she took a trip to Kenya and Tanzania that changed her life. She found that she still had a lot to learn about the world. She discovered that women and children in those countries still had to walk for miles just to get clean water for their daily needs. This situation touched her heart, and after she came home she started a non-profit in the hope of making a meaningful change in the African women’s lives. She formed “Friends of Woni Kenya International, Inc.,” and since 2008 she raised the funds to drill four water wells in rural areas of Kenya. She also raised money to build a girls’ dormitory in a rural area to keep the girls in school, so as to break the cycle of poverty. Kenya became another home for Evie, with many people there who she thought of as family. She traveled to East Africa over twenty-five times in order to check on projects, and to create more.
Evie is survived by her two sisters, Carol Ann Craig of Bakersfield and Connie Hurley of Nevada; her two step-daughters, Shawn Treen of Oregon and June Simmons of Texas; her niece, Beverly Kaplan and her husband Jeff of Boulder Creek CA; and by her niece and nephews Pamela, Bryan and Jeff Temmerman, and their mother, Claudia. Never having had any children of her own, Evie said she found three people who she felt were her two sons and a daughter: Omar Arreola, a renowned mariachi singer; Juan Camarena, a lieutenant with our agency, and Lois Mahalia, a gifted local singer. Evie also leaves behind friends too numerous to list.