Doris Simons
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Doris Wyatt Simons passed away peacefully on November 11, 2022. She was 96 years old. In a 1995 SMU Daily Campus article, written about her running 40 laps around the track after her retirement, she was asked how old she was. She said, "I don't care if you know, but I don't want to know!"
She was born in Enid OK on March 26, 1926. She grew up in Oak Cliff and graduated from Adamson High School, where she was Senior Beauty. She received a scholarship to SMU to study Math. While getting her Master's Degree and teaching at SMU, she and another girl were set up on a blind date with 2 guys. She ended up with Edwin Tower Simons, who was just back from serving as a Glider Pilot and instructor during WWII. He asked her to marry him after a couple of days. They were married in three months.
On their 50th Anniversary he bought her a bench on the Laura Bush Promenade at SMU. They told SMU the story about how he had proposed to her and the bench has her name on it with the inscription "On benches like these, proposals are made."
Doris and Ed had four children, Edwin, Wyatt, Elizabeth, and George. Doris taught piano to all of her children. When George started school, she went back to teaching at SMU, a total of 25 years. After retiring, she began taking dance and acting lessons. She was in dozens of plays at Brookhaven College and joined the Dallas Tap Dazzlers. She also danced in the "GrannyActs" during halftimes at Mavericks games. The Dazzlers also danced on the Steve Harvey TV show.
A Dazzler friend said, "She always smiled." Doris told her daughter, "Always smile, even when you are driving!"
Doris was an active and devoted member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Garland and later at Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, in Dallas. She served as a Reader, a substitute soloist, a Sunday school pianist, and an usher.
Doris and Ed were married for 58 years. He passed away in 2008. Their granddaughter, Elise, daughter of Elizabeth and Mark; eldest son, Edwin; and daughter-in-law, Nancy, wife of Wyatt, have previously passed. She is survived by her son, Wyatt; son George and his wife Erin; daughter Elizabeth and her husband Mark; Edwin's wife Susan, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
We are so grateful for our loving mother, to have been in this family, and to know that there is Life eternal. We know those that have moved on, feel our Love, and we feel their Love. We all live in God.
Her memorial service will be held on Friday November 25, 2022 at 2:30 at the DFW National Cemetery, where she will be buried next to her husband, Ed.