Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 270989
Title: Joan E. Simons
Date: 12/2/1929-9/26/2022
Inscription/Marks: 12/2/1929
Summary: Joan Elise Simons, 92, passed away peacefully in her home on September 26, 2022, surrounded by her children. She was coherent, and asking for ice cream up until the end. A celebration of her life was held October 1, 2022, at McCabe United Methodist Church, Bismarck, ND. Joan E. Nelson was born December 2, 1929, to Paul and Gladys (Williams) Nelson in Carrington, ND, and was christened Joanne Elise Nelson; however, she later changed her name to Joan because she thought it sounded more sophisticated. She attended schools in Carrington, Fargo, Towner, Valley City, and Jamestown, graduating from Jamestown College in 1951. She always spoke fondly of her days at Jamestown College where she was very active in choir, band, and drama, once even playing the lead role of Lady Macbeth. It was also there that she met her husband, Robert W. Simons, and they were married in 1954. They had two children whom they affectionately called Barbie and Bobby. Joan was very thankful for her education degree and used it to teach art, drama, remedial reading, and English at Devils Lake, the State Industrial School in Mandan, Wilton High School, and Bismarck High School for 39 years. She was known to her three grandchildren as “Grammar” since she often corrected theirs. Hopefully thousands of North Dakotans who were in Mrs. Simons’ classes are now avoiding bad grammar, run-on sentences, dangling participles, etc. Her grandchildren remember her home as a peaceful place of order where they would come and eat “safe snacks” like boxes of raisins or cottage cheese and fruit on fancy plates, but never any “dangerous pop,” which was anything with caffeine. However, she did have one indulgence - ice cream. You could always count on getting an ice cream drumstick out of the freezer at Grandma’s house, which she would serve to you with a napkin and on a placemat at her dining room table. You could also count on great conversations seasoned with her exclamations of, “How wonderful!” or, “Just marvelous!” Joan was an active member of McCabe United Methodist Church, serving on the funeral committee for years. She was in charge of calling and asking people to bring cookies for funerals, and she mentioned from her hospice bed that she sure hopes someone will do that job for her funeral. As well as doing other volunteer work in the community, Joan spent her time journaling cute things her children and grandchildren did and putting together scrapbooks for each of them, tracking down relatives for her genealogy studies, making homemade cards with cute comics and random scrapbook paper to write endless letters, reading fiction, and playing piano. Never one to be bored, she also learned to use a computer in her later years and became an avid emailer. Joan is survived by her children, Barbara (Steve) Fix, Bismarck, and Pastor Robert (Lori Dauenhauer) Simons, Dickinson, ND, her three grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren: Luke and Aliesha Simons and their children, Warren (Esther), Dakota (Guy Pearson), Shyann, Sierra, and Liberty, Dickinson, ND; Sara and Pastor Michael Woods and their children, Philip (Joyanna), Eric, and Jacilyn Elise, Beulah, ND; and Ben and Tracie Simons and their children, Abe (Sierra), Mason (Amber), Bobbie, Dannie, Chance, Cooper, Lee, Laynie, Wytnie, Jaymie, Barbie, and Jubilie Joan, Medora, ND. She is also survived by her five great-great-grandchildren; her sister, Paula Schaefer, of Nevada, and her nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; and her brother, Roger Nelson.
Red ID: FND_I_78480

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

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