Alice A. Weathers

EVANSVILLE (Ind.) October 21, 2022 — It is with great sadness that the
Community Action Program of Evansville (CAPE) announces the passing of Alice Weathers, 78. “She was our Chief Executive Officer for 36 years”, says Tony Kirkland, spokesperson for the CAPE Board of Directors. “We miss her loving presence and her compassionate, innovative leadership.”

Ms. Weathers, the top anti-poverty advocate in southern Indiana, was surrounded by CAPE top administrators and her daughter, Avril L’Mour Weathers, when she peacefully transitioned on October 14, 2022, at Heart-to-Heart Hospice in Evansville, IN.

Upon learning of the transition of CEO Weathers, many recipients of her generosity immediately launched into stories about her dedication to the quality of life in southern Indiana and the impact she had on the enhancement of their personal lives.

A native of East St. Louis, Illinois, born to Dr. Henri Hudson and Alice Mae Weathers in 1944, Ms. Weathers taught math at the Providence School for Boys in St. Louis and soon became a consultant and an urban planner. She then moved on to Jefferson City, where she graduated from Lincoln University with a bachelor's degree in Communications. The building of these skills led her to write Jefferson City's first Community Block Grant Program, receiving a $20 million federal grant for Energy Crisis Assistance.

Skilled and prolific at writing federal grants, Ms. Weathers was the clear choice for the top position in 1986 at CAPE, where she is credited with expanding affordable housing, energy assistance vouchers, and Head Start preschool throughout Posey, Gibson, and Vanderburgh counties. We give her honor for the enhancement of so many thousands of lives over the past four decades.

For this work, she was a recipient of numerous accolades and awards, including being named a National Head Start Fellows Finalist in 1995, Evansville Black Women's Task Force Award, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church Outstanding Community Service Award, Who's Who in Black America, and Outstanding Young Women in America Award, to name a few.

Across the nation, Ms. Weathers was renowned as a CAPE Leader. She was appointed Head Start Program Peer Reviewer from 1997 to 2006 by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and, in 2004, the UCLA Johnson & Johnson Head Start Fellow.

In her leisure, Ms. Weathers volunteered as host of two public affairs shows, "Drum Beat" and "And So It Goes," with WEOA 1400-AM Radio. She served on numerous nonprofit boards and committees, including Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice Committee and Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon's Indiana Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Board Executive Committee. She was also an avid supporter of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus.

A Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Alice Weathers will be announced soon.