Ada Lee Simmons

Our mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great-great grandmother Ada Lee Simmons, also known as “Ada The Great”, went home to the Lord on Sunday, December 16, 2018 at the age of 89. She was born on November 16, 1929 in Bristow, Oklahoma to Irving and Bernice West and was the fourth of six children. As a child she remembered being her happiest when she and her sister Lillie would climb to the top of the barn and throw tea parties with Irish potatoes and cucumbers. When she turned 18 she moved from Bristow to Oklahoma City where she would spend the remainder of her life.

Ada was spunky, but kind. Everyone always knew where he or she stood with her. She either liked you or she didn’t, and it was pretty black or white. As her children, we are still trying to figure out which one it was for us, though we know she loved us infinitely. Her favorite pastimes were watching Gunsmoke and Bonanza, organizing her home, and ironing — she believed everyone should love ironing as much as she did. She especially loved her Begonia flower garden. And trust us she LOVED to weed that garden with us as her helpers, when child labor was legal, or so we were told.

She had a life-long love affair with fried chicken, Spanish peanuts, Coke and above all Shaquille O’Neal. She had several specialties, but her homemade molasses cookies were by far the best. She was unabashedly proud of her grandchildren and would do everything from babysitting to ferrying them all around town.

Ada was a member of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor K. Gerone Free. She served on several committees including the Women’s Missionary Union, the Finance Committee, and the Usher Board, where she was President for many years. She loved attending Sunday school and encouraged her children and grandchildren to attend as often as possible. In 2015 she joined her sister Lillie as a congregant of Tabernacle Baptist Church.

Throughout her lifetime she was involved in various community organizations, and would help any and everyone in need. This includes caring for senior citizens long after many would have considered her a senior citizen herself.

She is survived by her sisters, Corentha Mae West and Lillie Qualls; brother Johnnie (Viola) West; daughters, Charlene Post, Wilhelmina (Rudolph) Townsend, Elois Stevenson, Leigh (Harold) Gilkey and Camilla Reeves; grandchildren, John Calvin (Kim) Tyce, Shettra (Robert) Snowball, Dereck (Amy) Tyce, Tori (Christopher) Watley, Terrell (Tasha) Hall, Tara Hall; great-grandchildren, Chase, Noah, Gabriel, Felicity, Mikayla, Melody, and Eliysha Tyce, Robert IV, Wisdom and Miriam Snowball, Tiarra and Terrell Hall, and Layla Hadley; great-great grandchild, Robert Snowball V; and sons from another mother Phillip and Peter Rosier.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, her brothers, Irving and Robert West, and her grandchildren, Quinton Hall and Hailey Tyce.