Evaline Ness (April 24, 1911 - August 12, 1986) was an American commercial artist and illustrator for award winning children's books.
She was born Evaline Michelow in Union City, Ohio and grew up in Pontiac, Michigan. Ness studied at Ball State Teachers College. She continued her studies at Corcoran College of Art and Design and Academie de Belle Arte in Rome.
Evaline Ness was a highly paid commercial artist before deciding to become an illustrator and author in 1960, with the publishing of The Bridge, by Charlton Osborn. Ness began writing when she created a story for a series of woodcuts set in Haiti. Josephina February is the simple tale of a girl’s search for a lost burro. Evaline Ness illustrated more than thirty books for young readers and also wrote many of her own. In addition to winning the Caldecott Honor for A Pocketful of Cricket, she received the Caldecott Medal in 1967 for Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine.
She was married to Eliot Ness, an American Treasury agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois as the leader of a legendary team nicknamed The Untouchables. They were married from 1938 until their divorce in 1946. She married Arnold Bayard in 1959. She died in Kingston, New York. Her work is housed at the de Grummund Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.