Waterman’s

A fishing magnate’s daughter finds her match in her father’s first mate

Churchton’s Bob Evans was best known as a fishing magnate. A captain since 1972, Evans served on countless boards and committees as a waterman’s advocate. But he was also something of matchmaker. “To be honest, my dad got together quite a few people,” says his daughter, Liza Evans, 37. “I would ask him: ‘Hey, Dad, you’re hooking up everybody else. Why haven’t you found anybody for me?’ ”

After her father died in 2015, Evans worried that he would never know the man she’d marry. It turns out he’d already found the right person for her — though no one realized it for 25 years.

Liza Evans, who was born with cerebral palsy, began answering phones for the family business at the age of 7 and continued to work for Bob Evans Seafood for the next 30 years.

A few years after Evans began working, her father hired 11year-old Anthony Jones to help in the boatyard and eventually work aboard the ships. As Jones shot up to 6 feet 9 inches over the years, Bob Evans dubbed him “Shaq.”

“We did so much together. He was like my dad, pretty much,” says Jones, now 37. “He was a really great guy.”

Liza Evans remembers the beloved waterman as “very set in his ways,” a trait she didn’t appreciate until recently.

“Once he had his mind set on something, there wasn’t any changing it,” she says.

Evans and Jones continued to work for her

LAUREN MCMULLEN PHOTOS Jodi Landon, left, and Stephanie McMurray, right, have been friends with Liza Evans since seventh grade. They were classmates with the groom, Anthony Jones, as well.

At his wedding to Liza Evans, Anthony Jones, left, posed with members of the wedding party on Some Beach, a crabbing boat that rafted with the Tempest, the bride’s family’s boat, during the ceremony.

A replica of Liza Evans’ family boat, the Tempest, topped the cake at her wedding to Jones.

Crab pot buoys served as centerpieces at the wedding reception.