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Cheryl Artise Gray Evans (born 1968, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American lawyer and politician. She represented District 5 in the Louisiana State Senate prior to her resignation in 2009. She formerly served in the Louisiana House of Representatives (District 98).

Background

After finishing Eleanor McMain Magnet Secondary Senior High School in New Orleans, Gray proceeded to Stanford University, where she was a member of the track team and Delta Sigma Theta, receiving her baccalaureate degree in 1990. She then returned to New Orleans and received her Juris Doctor from the Tulane University Law School in 1993.

She practiced law with New Orleans' Gray & Gray Law Firm, which was started by her parents.

Political career

Gray Evans is a confidant with the reform faction of the Orleans Parish Democratic Party—the element frequently identified with the Black Organization for Leadership Development (BOLD) political organization which inexorably competes against William J. Jefferson and his Progressive Democrats. Gray Evans defeated one of Jefferson's daughters, Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, for the Senate District 5 seat vacated by the term-limited Diana Bajoie, Jefferson's successor in the state Senate. She is a critic of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's handling of recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Personal life

Gray Evans' official state senate résumé lists a host of achievements, activities, awards, and memberships. She attends Asia Baptist Church in New Orleans and is married to former New Orleans television and radio news anchor/reporter Patrick Evans, who once served as Communications Director to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Toward the end of 2009 Cheryl Gray Evans resigned from the legislature to join her husband, who had begun serving on active duty in Connecticut as a public affairs officer in the Navy.

References

1. Gray Evans' bio on the Louisiana Senate site.
2. See List of Delta Sigma Theta sisters. Her mother, Ernestine S. Gray, is also on that list.
3. See Rosalind Peychaud and cf. Stacy Head. Jefferson's political career declined when he was defeated for re-election to Louisiana's 2nd congressional district seat by Republican Joseph Cao in 2008 and convicted of 11 felonies in 2009.
4. Louisiana Secretary of State election returns for 2007 November 17.
5. Richard A. Webster, "Charity debate drags on as renovation talk surfaces" in New Orleans CityBusiness, 2008 September 29.
6. Gray Evans' bio on the Louisiana Senate site (accessed 2009 December 29).
7. "Campaign bio". Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
8. Patrick Evans' résumé.
9. Peterson qualifies for state senate race, Times-Picayune, 2009 December 29, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B1.

• 1968 births
• African-American state legislators in Louisiana
• 21st-century African-American women politicians
• 21st-century American women politicians
• Baptists from Louisiana
• Delta Sigma Theta members
• Lawyers from New Orleans
• Living people
• Democratic Party Louisiana state senators
• Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives
• Politicians from New Orleans
• Stanford Cardinal women's track and field athletes
• Stanford University alumni
• Tulane University alumni
• Tulane University Law School alumni
• Women state legislators in Louisiana
• 21st-century African-American politicians
• 20th-century African-American politicians
• 20th-century African-American women politicians
• 20th-century American women politicians
• 21st-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature