Howard Philip Everline

1929 - 1996  (66 years)

• Name	Howard Philip Everline
  Birth	17 Aug 1929	Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland
  Gender	Male
  Death	25 Jun 1996	Zion, Lake County, Illinois
  Notes	You don't hear about Zion much. It's stuck up along the north shore but way too far north to belong to the stuck-up North Shore. It's almost in that state of outlet malls, head cheese and anorexic dogs chasing mechanical rabbits known as Wisconsin. But Zion oozes personality. My first visit there was on April 1, 1986, when an atheist crashed a city council meeting to ask city fathers to remove God from the city government whose slogan was "God Reigns." While just waiting to write a story about Zion's born-again mayor amid the flag-waving atheist, I witnessed a rock fight between local youths and white-robed Ku Klux Klansmen. Those were wild days for Zion Mayor Howard P. Everline. His phone rang off the hook. He could put Deborah Norville on hold while he chatted with Oprah or Jane Pauley. (Norville was a mere Channel 5 reporter then and Everline logged more air time on the "Today" show than she did.) Everline was a TV star, and Rob Sherman co-starred as "the atheist." It was a marriage made in heaven, or the atheist equivalent. Everline and Sherman engaged in witty banter, the city sold T-shirts. It was fun. Then came the 1987 mayoral race. Everline lost to State Sen. Adeline Geo-Karis. Oprah stopped calling. So did "Today." So did reporters. So did his friends. "I had five phone calls in one year — FIVE!" Everline says. "People dropped me as if I had the plague. I went through a deep depression. I was very bitter." The City of God forgot him. "They're so phony," says Everline, an ordained pastor. "None of the preachers called me after I got out of office." One of the five phone calls he did get was from Sherman. Despite the religious differences, Sherman had become a good friend and was worried the former mayor was depressed enough to attempt suicide. "I considered it," Everline admits openly. "I interviewed 45 places for jobs," Everline adds. He did not get a single offer and made his living through substitute teaching and an 11-acre farm where he and his wife Marge breed ponies. Zion was founded by Australian faith-healer John Alexander Dowie, who dreamed of a holy city of salvation and clean living for generations of Christians. "Hah!" Everline says. "Things aren't what they seem." He tells story after story of drunkenness, adultery, drug use, lies, sex, backstabbing and sloth, making Zion sound more like a "Twin Peaks" episode. "Zion was founded to be a better place," Everline says. "It has repudiated its heritage." That's why Everline stayed home. He didn't go to church (he turned to Channel 38 for his inspiration), avoided restaurants and didn't shop in Zion. Even after he came out of his funk and would run into people, Everline would not be phony. "They'd say, 'How are you?'" Everline says. "And I'd say, 'What do you care? You haven't bothered to call. Where were you when I needed you?'" He predicts a few Zion residents are bound for hell, a place he plans to avoid because "it's too crowded for me." Apparently, some people agree with him about the state of Zion. They asked Everline, 61, to run for mayor again against Geo- Karis and city commissioner Billy McCullough. Everline needed 35 signatures to get on the ballot, he got a little more than 40. "I did it myself, practically all on Sunday," says Everline, who had not returned to City Hall since his defeat. "I went in the back door to turn my petition in." He is not running on some issue. "Just my very presence is an issue," Everline notes. He knows he will be a huge underdog in the Feb. 26 primary election. "I can live with it or without it, but I think the people deserve a choice," he says. He also thinks Sherman will become born-again some day. Win or lose, Everline will hear from me before next Christmas. The Daily Herald, Chicago, Illinois,December 22, 1990 He was buried on 29 Jun 1996 in Zion, Lake Co., Illinois.
  Person ID	I32968	McKenzie Genealogy
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021

  
  

  Father	Harmon Mathias Everline,   b. 4 Nov 1900, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland d. 18 May 1940, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 39 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Ruth Sorda Wade,   b. 10 Apr 1903, Shaft, Allegany County, Maryland d. 9 Dec 2004, New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania (Age 101 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F12977	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Marjorie M. Willeke,   b. Private
  Marriage	Private
  Children	1. Joel Brian Everline,   b. Private  [Father: private]  [Mother: private]
  Family ID	F13268	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021