Simmons dies at 73 after life devoted to Las Vegas children

Tuesday, July 29, 1997 | 9:02 a.m.

SUN STAFF REPORT

Neta Mae Simmons moved to Nevada from Michigan in the 1940s, first to Reno and then to Las Vegas, where she made a lifelong impression on hundreds of children who will remember her love, her devotion to God, and her senses of humor and compassion.

She taught Sunday School at several Mormon churches in Las Vegas over the past 25 years and also worked with Cub Scouts and Brownies and gave swimming lessons to neighborhood children. Additionally, she helped raise the four children -- J.T., Addie, Zachary and Andrew -- of John and Marilyn Moran.

At closet cleaning time, whenever she came across clothes or toys that were no longer being used, she took personal charge of getting them into the hands of needy children.

"She loved to give, that's all I can say," said her sister, Mary Henry. "If she had something, and someone needed it, she would give it to them. And she had a very special, compassionate way of relating to children -- they knew she loved and cared for them."

Neta Mae Simmons, 73, died of cancer Sunday at her residence.

Simmons was born Feb. 3, 1924, in Ithaca, Mich. She grew up in Alma, Mich., north of Detroit.

"She raised me, fought my battles, and took care of me when I was a kid," Henry said. "Then I took care of her when she was sick for the past year and a half."

Henry said her sister kept the folks at the hospice in good spirits all through her final days. "She was always telling jokes, one right after the other," Henry said, recalling this one: "A guy jumped out of a plane and then his chute wouldn't open. He met a guy coming up and asked, 'Do you know anything about parachutes?' 'No,' the guy answered, 'Do you know anything about gas stoves?'"

A project that Simmons recently completed will have special meaning for all who knew her. All through her adulthood, she would write down the funny or poignant things that the kids in her life would say. She always intended to "someday" write a book that would immortalize the childhood gems.

"She always said the true face of God was in children," Henry said.

Well, she finally realized that "someday" had arrived and recently put all of her sayings together, so that others could see that true face as well as she had. She titled her book, "The Sayings of the Young and Innocent," and distributed about 100 copies to friends and family.

Off the top of her head, Henry remembered one saying: "She was at the beach once when a big wave washed over her and a child. The girl looked up and said, 'That's the first time I ever drowned in my whole life.'"

Simmons is survived by her husband, Lee Simmons; two sons and their wives, Grant and Attica Price, of Saudi Arabia, and Roy and Sandy Price of Pahrump; a daughter, Ellen Price, of Las Vegas; two grandchildren, Grant Price Jr. of Saudi Arabia and Shannon Mease, of Richmond, Va.; two brothers, Perry Haas, of Breckenridge, Mich., and Levi Haas, of Sloans Valley, Ky., and two sisters, Patricia Ward, of Sloans Valley, and Mary Henry, of Las Vegas.

Visitation is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday at Bunkers Mortuary, 925 Las Vegas Boulevard North. Services will be at Bunkers Mortuary Thursday at 10 a.m. Burial will be in the Bunkers Memory Gardens Memorial Park at 7251 W. Lone Mountain Road.

Donations in Simmons' memory may be made to the American Cancer Society.