Evelyn McHale

Born in Berkeley, California, on September 20, 1923, Evelyn was one of nine children of Helen and Vincent McHale. Her father, a bank examiner, moved the family to Washington, D.C., in 1930. Her mother's untreated depression strained the marriage, leading to divorce. Vincent gained custody of the children and settled in Tuckahoe, New York, where Evelyn attended Eastchester High School as a junior. She graduated from Normandy High School in 1942, joined the Women's Army Corps, and was stationed in Jefferson City, Missouri. Later, she moved to Baldwin, New York, working as a bookkeeper at the Kitab Engraving Company on Pearl Street. She became engaged to Barry Rhodes, a college student discharged from the U.S. Army Air Force.

On April 30, 1947, Evelyn took a train to Easton, Pennsylvania, to visit Rhodes. The next day, she left his residence, returned to New York City, and went to the Empire State Building. She left her folded coat and a suicide note on the observation deck wall, then jumped. A security guard stood roughly ten feet away. Detective Frank Murray found the note in her pocketbook. It read: "I don't want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family – don't have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiance asked me to marry him in June. I don't think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother's tendencies."

Her sister, Helen Brenner, identified the body. In keeping with her wishes, Evelyn was cremated with no service or grave. Rhodes later became an engineer and moved south, dying unmarried in Melbourne, Florida, on October 9, 2007.