Submitted by: Dan Rich

Ella Pearl Simmons

Feb. 21, 1910 - Aug. 7, 1998

South Bend Tribune 8/9/1998

Ella Pearl Simmons, 88, formerly of Heritage Court, Mishawaka, Ind., died at 8:45 p.m. on Friday, August 7, in the Regency Place Rehabilitation Healthcare Center of South Bend, Ind. She was born on Feb. 21, 1910, in Teagarden, Ind., to Clyde Elmer Bowers and Cora Mae Metcalf. She had lived in South Bend since 1929 coming from Union Mills, Ind.

As Ella P. Bowers, on March 27, 1928, she married Pat Simmons, who died in November 1979. She is survived by three daughters, Betty (Pat) Catanzarite and Sally (Joe) Casey, both of South Bend, and Barbara (Dave) Johnson of Mishawaka; five sons, Robert (Marge) and Pat Simmons, both of South Bend, Jerry Simmons of Chico, Calif., Don Simmons of Leesburgh, Fla. and Earl (Marion) Simmons of Lakeland, Fla.; 32 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren of which three are sets of triplets; her sister, Edna Jean Woodward of New Albany, Ind.; and by her brother, Elmer Bowers of Union Mills. She was preceded in death by two sons, Jack in 1990 and David in 1991. Mrs. Simmons was a member of the Order of Eastern Star and a past president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Avalon Grotto of South Bend.

Services will be at 1 p.m. on Tuesday in the Forest G. Hay Funeral Home, 435 S. Ironwood, with Rev. Kenneth Peterson officiating. Interment will follow in Southlawn Cemetery. Friends may call from 3 to 7 p.m. on Monday in the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made to Logan Center.