Biography
Jennie Evans was born in 1883, in Texas, to a Black family, and she moved to Los Angeles as a young woman. She worked as a cook and a domestic worker. She was a member of a Baptist church and was drawn to the preaching of a holiness group. She was a woman of deep devotion who prayed a great deal. In 1906, she joined a small group of believers who gathered for prayer at the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street, in Los Angeles. The group was led by William Seymour, a young Black preacher from Louisiana who had come to the city.
They met for prayer and fasting, in the hope of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On April 9, 1906, as the group prayed, Edward Lee, one of the members, spoke in tongues. Jennie Evans was the first woman to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit in that meeting. She stood and began to speak in a language she did not know, and she is said to have sat at the piano and sung in the Spirit. She also played the piano and the organ. Others quickly followed, and the news spread. The crowds grew so large that they had to move to an old building on Azusa Street. That was the beginning of the Azusa Street Revival.
She was among the most active members of the group. She took a leading role in the meetings, serving as a singer, pianist and evangelist. She also visited the sick and the poor and was a faithful worker. She became one of the leaders of the mission. In the early days, she was a close helper to William Seymour. She traveled with him to hold meetings in other cities, such as Houston and Chicago. She sang under the anointing and spoke at the services.
On May 13, 1908, she married William Seymour. The marriage came as a surprise to some of the believers. She was a faithful and devoted wife, and the couple lived at the mission. They had no children. She continued to help in the work of the mission. She also served as a leader of the music and as a teacher. She was an important figure in the mission's life.
When the revival began to decline in the years after 1909, the mission was in difficulty. There were divisions among the leaders. One of the main events was the departure of Clara Lum, who took the mailing list of the mission's newspaper to Portland, Oregon. This weakened the work. William Seymour was in poor health, and the mission suffered financially. Jennie stood by him. She was a steady presence in a time of loss.
William died on September 28, 1922. After his death, she took over the leadership of the Apostolic Faith Mission, and she kept the work going until 1931, when the building was taken by the city for a tax debt and was sold. She struggled to keep the mission together, and she held services in other places. She died in 1936. Her life is not well known, and she has often been overlooked in the story of the revival. She was in the center of the first meetings.
She is an example of the quiet women whom God used in the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. Her life shows that those who serve in the background may hold the work together, and that a faithful widow may preserve a legacy.