Mrs. Mildred E. Simms

MRS. MILDRED E. SIMMS

On December 10, 2023, Mildred Earle Simms died of natural causes at her home in Rockville, Md. She was 92 years old.

Mildred was born on August 24, 1931, in Campobello, South Carolina, to Adam S. Copeland, Jr. and Leola Odessa Ballenger Copeland. She was the second daughter and youngest of three children (Alberta, John, Mildred).

The family later moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina. Mildred attended elementary schools there, including Hendersonville School Six One and the Hendersonville Colored Elementary School. In 1950, she graduated from Hendersonville Ninth Avenue High School as the Valedictorian of her class. While attending high school, Mildred played “half court” basketball with the girls’ basketball team, receiving the Varsity letter for two consecutive years.

Following graduation, Mildred attended Bennett College. While at Bennett, she was an Honors student who pursued her passion for the sciences. She often worked in the college laboratory, and ultimately received a B.S. in Biology in 1954. Mildred was the recipient of the Class of 1921 Honors Prize at graduation.

Mildred then moved to New York City, where she worked as a cancer detection technician at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center. To her, the symbolism of working in a woman’s clinic analyzing pap smears after graduating from a women’s college was powerful. Her most precious and enduring benefit from this job was that she met and married (on Thanksgiving Day, 1955), Eugene C. Simms. Eugene worked in an adjoining laboratory as a cancer research technician, having graduated in 1953 from Morgan State College (University). After she left NYU-Bellevue, Mildred worked at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York. She continued to work there during Eugene’s first year of medical school at Howard University. Ultimately, she was able to join Eugene in Washington, D.C. She worked as a laboratory technician and later a research biologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Later, while working at NIH’s National Institute of Dental Research, she co-authored the abstract “Double Mating: Its Use to Study Heritable Factors in Dental Caries,” which appeared in the Aug. 27, 1965 edition of Science.

In June 1970, Mildred, Eugene and their two daughters moved to Indian Wells, CA. Mildred learned to swim and to play tennis. Her brilliance in biology also aided her in understanding how to cultivate a fabulous garden, where she spent many hours.

Mildred was involved in many volunteer, civic, and philanthropic organizations and endeavors during her lifetime. She was instrumental in introducing a children’s book section of the Palm Desert Library. She was a member of National Charity League, and a member of the League of Women Voters. She was an active member in St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. In 2005, she and Eugene established the Alberta Copeland Lewis Memorial Scholarship Fund at Bennett College, named after her sister, Alberta, a 1951 Bennett College graduate. She and Eugene also established a charitable trust at Howard University Medical School, which, to this day, continues to benefit current medical students.

Anyone who knew Mildred understood her genteel, yet formidable spirit. She attended many family reunions and college reunions at Bennett, including her 65th Reunion in 2019.

She is preceded in death by Eugene, her husband of 59 years, her parents, sister, and brother. Survivors include two daughters, Gia and Gina, many cousins, other relatives and close friends.