SIMMONDS, Norma

The White Mountain Independent, Show Low, Arizona ~ February 23, 2007 Norma Simmonds, 98, of Show Low and Mesa died Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007 at a Phoenix nursing home. She was born April 10, 1908, in Boone County, Ark., the daughter of Maud and Mina Collins. She grew up in Arkansas and received her primary education at the School of the Ozarks in Missouri.She attended college at Warrensburg, Miss., and later at the University of Washington in Seattle, earning a degree in education. She married Winston Williams in 1944 and he predeceased her in 1968. She later married Reed Simmonds, who predeceased her in 1999. She made Oregon her home for many years, where she taught school. She began wintering in Arizona and finally made Arizona her permanent home 20 years ago. She was a member of the First Assembly of God Church in Show Low and the Overcoming Way Full Gospel Church in Apache Junction. She was a good Christian woman who enjoyed church work and reading her Bible. Mrs. Simmonds is survived by a son, Jim Williams and wife Debbie, of Scottsdale; and five grandchildren, Alice, Benjamin, Jamie, Jeremy and Jesse. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 22 in the chapel of Black's Mortuary in Show Low with Rev. David Watson officiating. Burial will be at the Show Low Cemetery under the direction of Black's Mortuary. Light a memory candle at norma-simmonds.blacksmortuary.com.