(July 26th 1896 - November 27th 1932)

Born Evelyn Jarvis in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1896 she migrated to Chicago with her mother as a child following the untimely death of her father. There she completed high school and went on to be a performer in early vaudeville and minstrel shows changing her surname to Preer. Her first role in film came with Oscar Micheaux's 1919 debut "The Homesteader" and was followed in 1920 by her best known role playing the lead in another Micheaux film "Within Our Gates". Evelyn met her future husband Edward Thompson when they were actors with the Lafayette Players in Chicago and the couple were married in 1924. By the mid-1920's Preer had started to appear in cross-over parts on both film and stage attracting much attention from the white press. Evelyn Preer would have her talkie debut staring in the 1930 race musical "Georgia Rose" and in 1932 gave her final film performance as a prostitute named Lola in Josef von Sternberg's "Blonde Venus". In April 1932 Preer developed complications while giving birth to her only daughter Edeve Thompson. As a result Evelyn Preer took ill and would finally succumb to double pneumonia on November 27th 1932.