The Letitia Pate Evans Papers consist of both originals and copies of documents and letters between Letitia (Lettie) Pate (Whitehead) Evans and Washington and Lee University administrators and their contacts regarding the initial development of her philanthropic relationship with the school. Mrs. Evans, of Bedford County, Virginia, married Joseph Brown Whitehead in 1895 and together they were key in developing the Coca-Cola Company’s early bottling facilities. After Joseph’s death, Letitia sold the family’s independently run bottling facilities to the Coca-Cola Company for Coca-Cola stock. She became a major shareholder of the company and was ultimately elected to the Coca-Cola Company’s board of directors, thus becoming the first American woman to be director for a major national company. Letitia remarried Arthur Kelly Evans in 1913 and they resided in Hot Springs, Virginia. Washington and Lee University benefitted from numerous financial gifts of the Letitia Pate Evans Foundation. Correspondents include W&L president Francis Pendleton Gaines.