Evelyn Wilkinson died at Ozanam Hall of Queens Nursing Home in Bayside, Queens at 5:20 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007. She was 96.

She was born Evelyn Feldman at home in Woodbine, NJ, on Sept. 19, 1911. She grew up poor on a chicken ranch that lacked indoor plumbing or heat; her mother, Rebecca, would put a brick in the wood-burning stove, wrap it in a towel, and place it under the blankets at the bottom of the bed to keep Evelyn and her six siblings warm in winter.

Evelyn helped her mother and siblings by working in the general store they ran on the ranch. At home, she watched her mother take in destitute travelers who would do chores in exchange for shelter; and at the store, she saw her mother quietly slip in extra free groceries in the satchels of neighbors lacking sustenance. But Evelyn craved excitement and sophistication so at 17, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a waitress, lived in a room by herself for the first time and sent money home to her mother.

Mesmerized by the different styles of cuisine all around her-she had been raised an Orthodox Jew in a kosher home-she worked at different restaurants, accumulated cookbooks and taught herself how to make a white sauce when she moved into a place with a small kitchen. Outgoing and confident, she would strike up conversations in the street with strangers, many of whom would become lifelong friends. She saved enough to visit Europe with her artist friend Rita Lipton (mother of actress Peggy Lipton), attended every cooking lecture and class she could, studied with famed chef Dione Lucas, and excelled at French, then German, Chinese, Japanese and finally, organic cooking.

By this time, her gawkiness had been replaced by womanliness, and she was known as quite a looker. While waitressing and working as a dancer in a nightclub during World War II, she met a young U.S. Army sergeant who had just been drafted to be Maj. Glenn Miller's chief arranger for the Army-Air Force Band overseas. Ralph Wilkinson, an Oberlin graduate who had pulled in a weak living playing Fats Waller-style piano in college, displayed a rare talent as a pianist, composer, conductor and arranger. Evelyn was smitten by his musical promise and giddy sense of humor. As she later recalled, "He wooed me on the mighty Wurlitzer." They were married in 1944, he shipped out, and, fortunately, escaped death: In Europe, at the last minute, he took a different plane than the one that crashed with Miller on board.

After the war, thanks to several of Ralph's arranging jobs (for Benny Goodman and Frank Sinatra), the Wilkinsons were able to leave their Elmhurst apartment and buy a Roslyn Heights home, where they raised three daughters. Evelyn's culinary masterpieces continued dazzling all, including famed New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne. He wanted to meet this woman who had called in to correct him, while he was on a radio talk show, on the finer points of tarragon. He trekked out to Nassau and the feature that resulted chronicled Evelyn's recent daring cross-country road trip, during which she created campsite gourmet fare for Ralph, their youngest daughter and other campers she would invite. In her 70s by then, she entered Newsday's chili cook-off and came away with first prize, thanks to some unorthodox additions: ground turkey, rum and unsweetened chocolate.

She explored food and life horizons well into her late 80s, putting her grandchildren to work as junior sous-chefs making a perfect roux, teaching them to be generous to people in less fortunate circumstances, snipping chives and plucking fat tomatoes and wild dandelion greens from her beloved vegetable garden in the front yard of her suburban home, adding her own sprouted wheat berries to homemade bread dough, experimenting with tofu and other healthy tastes, and learning meditation. But she never lost her taste for deli food, the street-cart greasy hot dog, or McDonald's fish sandwiches and French fries. When not cooking up a storm, she attended performances of opera in the city, joined a poetry club, worked as a docent at Clark Botanic Garden in Albertson, and never failed to stop and offer friendly words and some walking-around money to beggars on the street.

Evelyn is survived by daughter Annie Blachley, of Port Washington, and her youngest daughter Mary McCarthy, of Flushing. Evelyn's oldest daughter, Joan Chapman, preceded her in death. She has six grandchildren: Erika Calvert, of Reseda, CA; Jessica Blachley, of Port Washington; Elizabeth Howland Chapman, of Acton, CA; Abigail Baldwin Chapman of Wellfleet, MA; Christian Bruen Chapman of Munich, Germany; and Arms Spafford Chapman of Wimberley, TX, as well as three great-grandchildren: Zoe Chapman of Acton, CA; and William Arms Chapman and Addison Ian Chapman, both of Wimberley.

Evelyn had asked that there be no formal memorial service and that her remains be placed next to Ralph's at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale. Her family has asked that anyone wishing to honor her life do so through a contribution to agencies providing shelter and life skills to homeless adults and youth: Preble Street Mission in Portland, ME, or Siena/Francis House, in Omaha, NE.