Roberta Elaine Simmons' Obituary
Roberta Elaine Simmons was born in Dallas, TX on July 6, 1928. She was the 3rd daughter and last child of Herbert and Ladine McDaniel. She grew up in east Dallas and always told her kids stories about growing up during the Great Depression and all the fun they had playing outside. She was a cheerleader at Woodrow Wilson High School where she met Joe Simmons, who became her husband in 1948.
She supported Joe while he was at Baylor Dental School. Their first child, Joe, Jr. was born in 1951 and they soon departed for Tucson, AZ while Joe was in the Air Force. They came back to Dallas and Joe joined his father in his dental practice at the Medical Arts Building in downtown Dallas. Joe's father passed away shortly after this, and Joe took over the practice on his own for many years. Elaine managed the dental office until Joe's retirement and was always a very active member of the Dental Alliance up until recently when her health declined at age 95.
Elaine had 4 more children: Karen, Charly, Janet and David, all about 2-3 years apart. Joe, Jr. and David added to the Simmons dental legacy by becoming practicing dentists themselves.
They moved to the family home at 6440 Patrick Drive and stayed there for over 30 years. Elaine loved to host parties and she held several in the back yard/lake area at their home. She always cooked all the food herself for weeks before a barbeque. Jody was married at one of these parties!
Joe & Elaine loved to travel the world. Joe piloted a private plane and Elaine took flying lessons when she was very pregnant with David, so she could land the plane if Joe could not. They took my boys (Dan & Adam) on many "2-week vacations" in the plane and eventually added Amy & Vanessa (Janet's stepdaughters) in on the fun. After Joe had a stroke and he could longer be a pilot, they bought a series of increasingly big motor homes and often took all 4 grandkids on more "2-week vacations" where they traversed to many places in the states, including a lot of national parks.
After Joe passed, she sold the family home and built a house in our neighborhood where she became busy with Book Club, Dinner Club and other social events. She is fondly remembered by many of our neighbors and it was great having her just a short walk away.
The greatest attribute of Elaine is her generosity, friendliness and a desire to make everyone happy around her. She would mail out birthday cards to almost everyone she ever knew. She always had the best presents for birthdays and Christmas.
She never met a stranger and as her daughter, I never witnessed her being anything but loving, caring, funny and kind to everyone she met.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVJmRmzdD98
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