Verna Simms was good at getting others to do things her way.
“She hated television; she felt it was a waste of time,” said her daughter, Jeannette “Jean” Simms, 69, of Festus. “When we had family get-togethers, she’d take the tubes out and just tell everybody it was broken.”
The lively little dynamo – “maybe 5 feet (tall) on her best day” – much preferred people to socialize, Jean said.
Verna Simms died Sept. 17 at age 97. She had been a librarian and was a published author.
“She was always just so much fun,” said her granddaughter, Debbie Adams, 46, of Festus. “She got along with everybody.”
Mrs. Simms, born in Arizona a few years before the Great Depression, was the youngest of seven children.
“She didn’t have a very good childhood,” Jean said. “Her dad deserted the family when she was young; I think that’s what inspired her book.”
Her novel, “Water Under the Bridge,” published in 2014, is a fictional account of a little girl growing up in that era and the hardships she faced.
When Mrs. Simms was 9, her mother brought the three youngest children back to Farmington. When Verna was 16, she met Howard Simms at a church meeting.
They were married in 1940 and settled in Festus, welcoming daughter, Dolores, the following year.
The young family relocated to California for a time while Howard served in the Navy.
“He was scheduled to go overseas, and they were loading alphabetically,” Jean said. “They ran out of room at the Rs, and told the rest they’d have to wait for the next transport. Somehow his paperwork got lost, and by the time they located it, the war was over.
“Mom took the credit, saying she prayed for it.”
Once back in Missouri, Howard went to work for PPG and second daughter, Jean, arrived in 1949.
Mrs. Simms was a full-time mother until 1966, when she went to work for the Festus Public Library
“She was always a big reader,” Jean said. “She spent so much time there, they eventually offered her a job.”
The family enjoyed camping and sightseeing in state parks.
“Anyplace that had water,” Jean said. “She liked to swim.”
One constant in Mrs. Simms’ life was her writing.
“When we went on vacation, she’d write notes, descriptions, little short stories, just for her own amusement,” Jean said.
After she turned 80, she began getting her work published.
“She’d send things off to magazines like Country Living, and they’d publish it and send her a copy. They paid maybe $20; she’d say it was her ice cream money.”
In 2013, Mrs. Simms began writing for the Leader, submitting humorous and heartwarming stories that frequently poked gentle fun at the author herself.
“One time I was at Alley Springs and a park ranger was talking about a story a visitor had written in a magazine,” Debbie said. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s my grandma!’”
Mrs. Simms maintained a close relationship with her surviving siblings.
“They were scattered all over the country, but she got together with them as much as she could,” Jean said. “They would meet at a state park or campground and vacation together.”
Mrs. Simms and her husband moved in with Debbie and her family in 2006, and Howard died early in 2007. Although his death was difficult for her, Mrs. Simms was able to be more active afterward.
“He had been slow for the past few years, and she had been sitting with him a lot,” Debbie said. “After he died, she was more social. She went every day to the pool to swim, she went to the senior center a lot for lunch, she played bingo. She did oil painting and photography.
“And she read a book a day. I couldn’t keep up with her.”
Mrs. Simms embraced technology with enthusiasm.
‘She had an iPad, a laptop, a desktop computer,” Debbie said. “Facebook was her friend. She liked watching videos.”
One of the delights of Mrs. Simms’ later years were her adventures with her great-grandson, Luke, 16, not all of which ended in success.
“They used milk jugs to build a raft,” Debbie said. “They got it all together and actually launched it in the Joachim (Creek), and it fell apart and they ended up in the water.”
Luke waves it off as a learning experience.
“It was a Tom Sawyer-inspired incident,” he said.
Books were a jumping-off point for many of their activities.
“We picked wild edibles, like dandelions, for salads,” Luke said. “She learned it all from a book her mom had in the Depression.
“We’d make up stories and she’d write them down. She got me interested in writing, and it’s something I do a lot.”
Mrs. Simms also was an inveterate snacker.
“She was a grazer,” Debbie said. “Healthy stuff, but all the time. We’d hear it in the middle of the night, wrappers crinkling. My husband said it was like having a mouse in the house.”
Except for cataract surgery, Mrs. Simms enjoyed excellent health until recently.
“In the past year, she started having more trouble getting around,” Debbie said. “She had given up swimming at 96, but she was still writing. After she had a stroke at the end of July, though, she couldn’t do much of anything.”
Debbie says her grandmother will be remembered for her devotion to her family.
“She always wanted to make sure we all were loved and taken care of.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.