Madeline Evans, Director of O.C. Special Olympics, at 67

Funeral services will be held Saturday for Madeline Evans, area director of the Orange County Special Olympics, who died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at age 67.

During her 26 years with the Special Olympics, Evans coordinated training and competition activities for more than 2,000 mentally impaired athletes.

She was also active with the Orange County Assn. for the Retarded, served as a director of the Orange County Council for Exceptional Children and was an adviser to the Orange County Developmental Disabilities Center.

The Connecticut native formerly chaired Assemblyman Richard Robinson’s Advisory Committee on the Handicapped and served from 1979 to 1986 on the state Department of Education’s Advisory Commission on Special Education.

Jerry Hime, board president of the Anaheim-based Special Olympics, said Evans had been in poor health in recent years. Due to complications from diabetes, both her legs were amputated below the knee.

“She touched the lives of thousands of mentally retarded individuals throughout Orange County,” Hime said. “It was kind of ironic, being a champion of the handicapped for so many years and ending up disabled herself.”

Evans is survived by two daughters, Pattye Downing of Antelope and Jenee Maurer of Brea; a son, James Gallagher of Anaheim, and four grandchildren.

The funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Memory Garden Memorial Park & Mortuary, 455 W. Central Ave., Brea. Burial will immediately follow at the cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to the Orange County Special Olympics, the American Diabetes Assn. or United Cerebral Palsy.