Sara Evans
American country singer Sara Lynn Evans was born February 5, 1971, in New Franklin, Missouri. Consistent with her country roots, Evans spent her childhood on the family farm as the oldest of seven children.
Evans knew music was her calling from very early on, and she demonstrated skills to back up her dream. By five years old she was a singing member of the family band. Three years later, she suffered a potentially devastating tragedy. Struck by a vehicle near the family home, Evans endured multiple fractures in both her legs. She was forced to spend months healing and recuperating in a wheelchair, but while confined to the chair, she continued to sing. In fact, in singing, she raised money for her mounting medical bills.
When Evans was just sixteen, she landed a two year gig in a Columbia city nightclub. Encouraged by her seemingly unhindered success, Evans decided to make the move to Nashville, Tennessee in 1991. That same year she met future husband and politician Craig Schelske.
Growing increasingly close, the two moved to Oregon and subsequently wed in 1993. In order to seriously pursue Evans’s music career, the couple moved back to Nashville in 1995. Her demos caught the attention of Harlan Howard, and she soon came under contract with RCA. With the release of her first album in 1997, everything seemed to be falling into place.
However, it proved to be more complicated than she thought. The album, Three Chords and the Truth, was showered with critical acclaim. Some even hailed it in the year’s top 10. But the public remained unconvinced. Not one single from the album broke into the top 40.
The following year, Evans released her second album, No Place that Far. This time, the critics were unimpressed and claimed Evans had sold out with her pop sounding album. But the album’s title song (a duet with Vince Gill) made it to #1 on the charts, and the album went gold. On the fence between success and failure, her next album was a do or die situation.
Released two years later in 2000, Born to Fly, proved to be the breakout hit Evans needed. The single Born to Fly soared to #1 until Suds in the Bucket began sweeping the country charts. But the album would still have even more successes. I Could Not Ask For More landed at #2, I Keep Looking peaked at #5, and Evans’s personal favorite, Saints and Angels, made it to #16. The album overall went double platinum and also garnered the most Country Music Association nominations for 2001, clocking in at seven.
Her next two albums were successes as well, but it was the 2005 release Real Fine Place that shot to #1 on the country charts and an astounding #3 on the pop charts. The same year, Evans not only had a great professional boost, but an ego boost as well, gracing the pages of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World edition. In a Country Weekly reader poll, she was voted one of the most beautiful women in country music, falling short of only the country knock-out Faith Hill.
In September 2006, Evans became the first country star to appear on the highly popular television series Dancing with the Stars. Fellow contestants included Jerry Springer, Vivica A. Fox, and Joseph (Joey) Lawrence.
But Evans sparked curiosity when she withdrew early from the show’s proceedings. A few days later it was announced that Evans and her husband were embroiled in an increasingly complicated and nasty divorce.
A devoted mother, the couple had three children together. |
