Oliver Napoleon Simmons

On the pleasant spring day of March 16, 1931 in Plano, Texas, Oliver Napoleon Simmons was born to Robert Simmons and his wife Lorena Simmons. Robert was the very proud father of a strong boy. The mother was just thankful and happy that Oliver was healthy!

As the family grew over the years, circumstances changed for the sharecroppers, and Oliver’s dad found the opportunity to work as a mechanic. Young Oliver was exposed to the world of automobiles, which became a lifelong passion. In his teenage years, Oliver was offered a job, so just shy of high-school graduation, he dropped out and went to work to pursue his goal. Not long after, however, the Army discovered Oliver and took him to Germany to live the military life for a couple of years chauffeuring the Colonel. After returning home, Oliver’s comment was, “Don’t ANYBODY call me ‘Sarge’!”

It didn’t take long for Oliver to get back into the work force with a company, then called American Clutch, where he saw a pretty, very sweet young lady by the name of Wilma Dene Barnhill and was smitten. After a few years, Wilma became Mrs. Oliver Simmons, and he remained devoted to her until Cardiorespiratory Failure, Anemia and Endometrial Cancer took his life’s partner from him on August 25. 2007.

Oliver continued to live, devoted to his deceased wife, in the house they had built in Mesquite, Texas in 1956, making his own repairs and modifications, doing his own yard work and yes, fixing his own cars, until in 2012, when he suffered a stroke that almost totally paralyzed the right side of his body. With assistance from good physical therapists, his stubborn willpower prevailed. He learned to walk, write, feed himself, and function again, perhaps, not 100%, but enough to live alone again for several years, until this past year when he needed assistance again. This time, however, his body was tired and aged, no longer able to continue the fight to live, and passed into the night on Valentine’s Day, February 16, 2021.

In addition to his loving wife Wilma, Oliver is preceded in death by his father and mother, Robert Lee Simmons (October 5, 1976) and Minnie Lorena Waid Simmons (May 29, 1976), also by his first sister Nellie Louise Simmons Hastcoat (January 21, 2019), and his second brother Thomas Edward (Eddie) Simmons (October 20, 2015).

Oliver is succeeded in life by his first brother Doyle Lee Simmons, his third brother Robert Wayne Simmons, his second sister Nettie Marie Simmons Watkins, and one sister-in-law Joy Sue Crumley Simmons, eight nephews, 6 nieces and a multiple great, great-great and great-great-great nephews and nieces.