When Mary Emma Turnbow was born on 20 February 1882, in Palouse, Whitman, Washington Territory, United States, her father, Benjamin Riley Turnbow, was 53 and her mother, Martha Ann Jenkins, was 42. She married George Francis Evans on 27 November 1901, in Whitman, Washington, United States. She died on 25 April 1903, in Palouse, Whitman, Washington, United States, at the age of 21, and was buried in Eden Valley Cemetery, Eden, Whitman, Washington, United States.