Just under a century on and the mother of three is awaiting next Saturday's 100-year Anzac Day commemorations, where she will this time walk arm-in-arm with her son Philip, and lay the wreath at Wellington's cenotaph.
As she graces Wellington, her daughters Kay Hutchins and Janice Winter will spend the day at an after-dawn service at Chunuk Bair in Gallipoli, where their great uncle's memory now rests among a collection of names set on the prestigious Lone Pine Monument.
Dressed in her annual Anzac Day attire, an elegant vintage red dress, Evelyn will front the Wellington Ex Women's Auxiliary Air Force Club, in honour of her role as a troop carrier driver for the New Zealand Air Force, during World War Two.
The wreath, among a collection of war-time memories showcased on the walls of Evelyn's Waikanae Country Lodge suite, represents a time that marked some of the best and worst times of her life.
Born on October 23, 1913, in the South Island's Arrowtown, she was raised on a farm and gained early driving experience, before leaving for Dunedin in her late teens to study and work.
A shift to Wellington's Newlands followed in later life, where she lived alone until January this year before settling into retirement care in Kapiti - a year after handing over her driver's license at 100.
The years between were filled with travels to various locations including Fiji with her late husband and then-air force Flight Sergeant Thomas Hutchins, whom she met through work and went on to marry in 1948.
"Just quietly, he and about 12 airmen who joined the air force before the war didn't want women coming in; no way did they want us," recalls Evelyn, whose role saw her drive 50 men around in the only carrier truck of its kind in New Zealand.
"He turned out to be my boss, but in the end while he was posted away he saw my photo in the New Zealand freelance paper, as I had taken lead roles in operas, and wrote me."
As a talented singer who studied light opera and had her music captured on records, Evelyn regularly sang live on Dunedin's 4ZB radio station and entertained nurses and hospital ship crews during Saturday night dances at Dunedin's Town Hall.
After leaving the air force she started her own concert party The Melody Stars, comprised of 16 wartime artists who had played alongside her at Civil Theatre Patriotic Concerts, and together they performed around 300 shows.
On duty, Evelyn sang to the troops as she drove them to railway stations and ships, where they left by boat for training in Canada, before heading on to England.
"I was driving them to their 'doom' so you would say, because a lot of them didn't come back.
"It was sad."
The repercussions of war hit early for Evelyn, who joined the air force in late 1942 at 29, when her then-English fiance was shot down in Germany flying a four engine bomber, and she "never saw him again".
"War was terrible.
"One time I went along to a training site just south of Dunedin, where the ground crew was practicing.
"All of a sudden two Tiger Moths flew into each other above us, and all four people were killed."
Evelyn, whose life-long love for music saw her help her mother play piano for silent movies at 15, and continue to perform with three young children in tow, said although there were "lots of horrible things that happened at war", there were some light moments too.
"Mine of course included entertaining.
"I always remember a time at the end of the war when I was in Christchurch, standing on a truck with a microphone in front of me, signing to the crowds.
"While I was singing a formation of Harvard aircraft flew overhead and drowned me out completely.
"They were noisy aircraft!"
For a woman set to turn 102 this year, Evelyn's tales are told with clarity and enthusiasm, which intensifies as she recalls her "lovely years" singing.
"My life has been a full one with many standout moments.
"Family, singing and the air force made for a very busy time.
"It was really something."
