Evelyn McClendon died on the Altadena block she grew up on when the Eaton fire swept through her neighborhood like “a scene out of a … movie,” her brother said.
A Loyola Marymount graduate and school bus driver, McClendon, 59, loved politics, scary movies and religion, according to her nephew, Jamire Calvin.
“She was an intellectual, a really big thinker,” he said.
McClendon and Calvin were neighbors, each living in houses in the backyard of their grandmother. McClendon’s brother and Jamire’s father, Muir High School coach Zaire Calvin, also lived on the block. In all, the Calvin family lived in five houses on the same block in Altadena where Evelyn and Zaire had grown up.
On Jan. 7, the extended Calvin family members were evacuating their homes as the Eaton fire shot down from the foothills.
Zaire Calvin told CNN that Evelyn was putting her belongings in her car on East Las Flores Drive as Zaire was helping other family members evacuate. He went to his sister’s house and called in that “we gotta get out, we gotta go now,” before going back down the driveway to help.
“It looked like the scene out of a volcano movie with the winds gushing and the fire everywhere. It was rough,” Zaire told CNN.
The next day, four of the family’s five homes had been destroyed by the fire, reduced to rubble, according to 60 Minutes.
McClendon’s car was still in front of her house. The family found her remains in her bedroom on Jan. 8.
Jamire and McClendon were neighbors in later life, but when he was younger, the two loved to watch movies together, even ones that Zaire might not have approved of.
“She liked scary movies,” Jamire Calvin said. They watched parts of the “Saw” horror movie franchise when Jamire was still in elementary school. “I don’t think my dad knew.”
His aunt also loved goofy jokes and talking politics and the news of the day.
“She had strong opinions about right and wrong,” Jamire Calvin said. “She was really pro-American. She believed in the system and wanted things to be correct.”
If McClendon wanted to be remembered for anything, it would likely have been for her faith, Jamire Calvin said.
“She loved Christ, that’s her savior,” he said.
The Calvin family is suing Southern California Edison for the wrongful death of Evelyn, alleging the company should have cut the power to the area after receiving warnings about severe Santa Ana wind conditions.
Donations to support McClendon’s family can be made to Jamire Calvin’s GoFundMe campaign or Zaire Calvin’s nonprofit, Xtreme Athletics.