Ernestine D. Evans, 82, had her share of hard knocks while growing up on a ranch in El Rito in rural New Mexico. As the eldest child and the only girl in the family, she was expected to pull her weight on the ranch along with her three brothers.

"I had to tend to the sheep and cattle just like my brothers — I even had to catch my own horse," she explains. In retrospect, the independence she learned on the ranch helped her as an adult. "My son was 4 months old when my husband died of spinal meningitis," she recalls. "I had to leave him with relatives in southern Colorado while I worked to survive. I would take the Greyhound bus to see him every six weeks. It broke my heart to be away from my son, but I learned then that in life, you just have to roll with the punches."

The adversity that Evans faced early in life seemed to inspire rather than defeat her. When her husband, Alcadio Griego, county treasurer for Rio Arriba County, died in 1941 while campaigning for the state Legislature, Evans took up his quest and became one of five women elected the to Legislature that year. She worked for two years, then went to work at a military hospital for returning World War II soldiers.

In 1945, Evans worked as an administrator for the State Land Office. Having found a niche in public office, Evans spent the rest of her career in government, including stints as the administrative secretary for Govs. John Burroughs and Jack Campbell. "I learned pretty quickly that in politics, you can't please everyone, and that you have to have a thick skin to survive," says Evans.

Of the many jobs she held in public service, the crowning glory were her two terms as secretary of state, in 1967 and 1975. Looking back on her work, the one thing she is most proud of was getting N.M. 554 paved and numbered in the 1940s so that her fellow residents in El Rito would have easy access to their village. In 2007, Gov. Bill Richardson renamed N.M. 554 the Ernestine D. Evans Road in recognition of her contributions to public office.

Evans was born in 1927 in Alamosa, Colo., to Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Duran of El Rito. "My mother's family was from Alamosa, and she knew that she was going to need help, so I was born there. To this day, I'm still mad at my mother for having been born there instead of my 'native' New Mexico," she says.

Evans graduated as valedictorian from the Spanish American Normal School in El Rito in 1934 at age 16. She received her teaching certificate the same year, and shortly afterward began teaching fifth through eighth grades. Then she attended New Mexico Highlands University for three years before marrying her first husband, Alcadio Griego. "Alcadio was the love of my life," says Evans. During her political career, she met and married Seth L. Evans, who adopted her son Stanley. "Seth took good care of us," she says. "I was so lucky to have been married to two wonderful men."

During the past 20 years of retirement here in Santa Fe, Evans has stayed active, traveling to places like Spain and Portugal. She also does a great deal of reading and spends time with her son and his family. The one thing that Evans doesn't like to do is dwell on the past. As she says, "The past is the past. I deal with today and the future, and I try to keep my life as uncomplicated as possible."

Ana Pacheco is the founder and publisher of La Herencia, a culture and history magazine (www.herencia.com, 505-474-2800). Her weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Tuesday.