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efore it became M&M’s Restaurant in the early 1990’s, the Cape Cod house on South Water Street was Evelyn Pfeifer’s home. Though it was her residence, Evelyn may have been getting the building accustomed to the idea of the general public coming through its doors.

M&M’s Cafe today. 35 years ago, it was Evelyn Pfeifer’s home and a place to get a glass of iced tea.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s Evelyn welcomed people to stop by her porch and sit for a while and sip some tea. Local residents knew they could go to the fridge in Ev Pfeifer’s‘s kitchen — even when she wasn’t there — and pour a tall glass of tea to slake their thirst.

Ev’s daughter, Jane Tindall remembers that her mother “would often come home to an empty pitcher of iced tea in the fridge” and would find in exchange, “a dozen or more shelled crabs in the freezer.” It got to the point, says Jane, that her mom was giving the crabs away, too.

Ev Pfeifer, who made Oriental her home for more than 3 decades, passed away this week at the age of 92.

Ev Pfeifer at 19.

Evelyn was born in 1917 in Beaufort to George Dill Norcom and Bessie Brooks Norcom. (Her family traced its roots to Beaufort’s earliest days a few centuries earlier.) Evelyn was the oldest of six sisters, all of whom survive her.

Jane Tindall says Norcom family grew up on Craven Street and that the Beaufort of her mother’s childhood in the 20’s and 30’s was different from what is there today. Along Taylor Creek, there was no boardwalk. The waterfront was full of menhaden boats. Ev and her friends often swam off the banks of Taylor Creek.

For the first nine years of Ev’s life, Beaufort and Morehead City were not yet connected by a bridge. When she was a teen, another bridge was built to connect Atlantic Beach to the mainland. As Jane puts it, “that opened up a new world of fun to Mom as she got older. She and her friends loved the beach and going dancing at the Atlantic Beach pavilion.”

Ev Pfeifer at right with her close friend, Myra Hyde. Ev moved to Oriental in 1975.

At a USO dance in the area, Ev met Coast Guardsman Charlie Allaire, a New Jersey native who as stationed in Morehead City. They married, and moved to Charlie’s hometown of Red Bank, NJ, where Jane and her sister, Carol Seitz grew up.

In Beaufort, Ev had gone out on boats, but mainly as a passenger. In New Jersey, Charlie taught Ev how to sail and how to love racing, says Jane. Both were avid one-design sailors and active at the Monmouth Boat Club where Ev started the Women’s Auxiliary.

“I’m not sure which she loved more,” Jane says,“racing, or the parties at the club following the races. Monmouth Boat Club knew how to fully embrace the experience!”

In the early 1970’s, after raising their family, Ev and her husband bought a Columbia 38 and cruised.

A game of cards while out on a sailboat.

Their travels brought them back to NC waters. Jane says that by the mid-70’s her parents were looking to make their home on land again. “By that time Beaufort had grown, so they chose to settle in Oriental…because it was a wonderful area to sail, and because of the way the locals embrace good people.”

In 1975, they tied up in Oriental, bought the Cape Cod house on South Water and started yet another phase of life.

Charlie Allaire passed away a few years later. Wanting to give her husband an Episcopal funeral, she arranged to have a minister come in from away. Shortly after that, what became St. Thomas Episcopal Church was started, and Ev was a tireless supporter and fundraiser for it. Until just a few years ago, she was active in the church, attending Sunday services (and then stopping in at The Bean afterward.)

Ev and Herman Pfeifer.

In the early 1990’s Ev met and married Herman Pfeifer and they lived at Oriental Point. (Around that time, the little white house on South Water Street became M&M’s Restaurant.) Ev and Herman Pfeifer were married 7 years until his death.

A few years ago, Ev moved to an assisted living center in New Bern.

She is survived by her daughters, Jane Tindall of Oriental and Carol Seitz of Beaufort, four grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren, and her five sisters, Florence Anderson and Joyce Tolson of Morehead City, Jean Bigalow of Erie, Pa., Ann Smith of Salter Path, and Ellen Smith of Atlantic Beach;

Ev Pfeifer’s funeral will be held at 11a on Saturday June 12 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Beaufort. The minister, the Rev. John Carlisto, will be officiating and the Rev. Jeremiah Day, pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, assisting. The committal service will follow at St. Paul’s Cemetery.

Posted Monday June 7, 2010 by Melinda Penkava