[1] Born in Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania, Evans attended Yale University briefly, but left to join the United States Marines and saw action in the Solomon Islands during World War II.
Medically discharged in 1944 after contracting malaria, Evans began his journalism career with the Philadelphia Bulletin before he joining the New York Herald-Tribune and working his way up to becoming the paper's Congressional correspondent.
It was in that role that he met his lifelong writing partner, Robert Novak, the Capitol Hill correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
By 1980, Evans & Novak were among the most widely syndicated columns in the United States as well as frequent guests on news-oriented radio and television talk programs.
They were featured prominently in The Boys on the Bus, Timothy Crouse's memorable best-seller about the workings of the Washington press corps during the 1972 presidential campaigns.