Kathryn Anne Simms

'Anne' was born 1931 in Hill City, Minnesota to Mary Martha and Ottmar Victor Lindquist. She was a lover of nature, choosing to work outside with her sister Betty. The property was and is beautiful, and Anne was a bit of a tomboy. When Anne was young she and her sister were lying on a snowbank, looking up they saw angels walking on a cloud, looking down at them, pointing their way, and speaking about the children together. This story never changed, though she did not tell it often. As a child, I knew it to be true.

Anne’s mother, Martha, born in Wayne, Nebraska, was a Gildersleeve who came from a big family. Her father was one of the first teachers and a superintendent in Aitkin County, Minnesota and started several schools. They homesteaded in Hill City, Minnesota and retired in Washington. Anne was deeply devoted to her mother Martha who was deeply kind and humble. She made stockings for people afflicted with leprosy, beautiful quilts for her grandchildren and wrote beautiful letters all her life. She sent nightgowns and pajamas at Christmas which we opened on every Christmas Eve. Our mother danced round the kitchen singing “l love you, I love you, I love you" to her beloved Mother. Erika was with Anne, in Grandma's kitchen, they were preparing strawberries for the winter. Grandma sometimes spent winter months with Anne and George’s family. Every night she read the Holy Bible and every day she knelt in prayer. She was very beautiful and it's true, "Beauty is as beauty does".

As a family they once took a big trip in 1981, visiting her sister Louise in California, and even met some of her brothers in Washington. She was swept backward into the foam on Eureka Beach in California while wearing her Brownie camera which made her laugh and laugh for hours. She traveled to Lake Shasta and on to Puget Sound for a family reunion. Although she'd had a stroke in 1988, that did not dull her humor even through till the night she passed, she giggled like a schoolgirl.

Anne joined the Air force after High School where she met George Simms in Tacoma Washington. Being avid athletes, they both were on basketball teams and even skied on Mt. Rainer on their first date. He fell a lot but she was raised on snow and was even a weather observer. After they were wed, they honeymooned at Old Faithful Inn. Her husband George, played second base for a season for the Cardinals in Georgia where they won the league pennant. George took his children skiing often with cousins to a slope in San Isabel where he and a friend opened a rope tow operation with a small warming hut. They froze in leather boots and wool, but it was the way they said they learned. Always one for adventure, they took their children to movies at the drive in, swam on swim teams, rode horses, played tennis and even at 80 years of age, she walked down and up 338 steps to see the lower Falls at Yellowstone.

Ann loved animals and raised many pets with great love and sacrifice. She and George were well loved by devoted friends and by the sweetest family one can possibly imagine. Their children can only thank the loving souls who continue to shine the light of love in memory and deed upon their Mother Anne and her good husband, and father, George. Together again.

Anne is survived by her children Casey (Ranola) Simms, Gayle (Gary) Eaker, Kelley Jill Simms, Douglas(Chris) Simms, Erika Miller; Grandchildren Jade (Bobby) Sealy, Charles (Amy) Simms, Shane (Mitzi) Eaker, Rob (Katie) Eaker,Kailee (James) Johnson, Ian Simms, Halle Simms and Ryan Miller; Fourteen great grandchildren;Sister and brother Viola Stuart, Bernhard (Carol) Lindquist, Sister in Law Helen Lindquist,and many nieces and nephews from both sides of the family.Beloved friends Donna (Jim) Grieve. She is preceded in death by her parents Ottmar and Martha Lindquist, husband George Simms.,Sisters Leila (Bob) Leudeking, Betty (Clifford) Stone,Brother Ottmar Lindquist, Son-in-Law Justin Miller.

For Anne

I want to go home. Will you take me home?

The road North, a gravel road

to the rounded drive

lined with every fir and pine

sheltering the spring

where she came, Mary Martha

every day

to carry water

Mama's home

Raspberry Summers

Cows in the valley pasture

their milk, their cream

Reeds we cut, fish we caught

fried to perfection, never wanting

Grama, Aunt Helen, Anne and Betty

in the kitchen in the garden

freshness everywhere

Grama's flower bed with pansies,

asparagus in the grass

Grama's record player, Peter and the Wolf

the paper house with no square rooms

The baby bear waits for it's Mama, clinging to the tree

crying. North of Itasca

this is the top of the world

Aurora Borealis

10 PM still daylight

When Grama met a wolf on a walk

told it to Go Home!

When Douglas came for the Summer

Three boys and a girl walk thru fields and a forest

to the Hill Lake where their raft is their ride

Pushing a pole up and down fishing all day,

swimming in their underwear

(don't swim under the raft) but they do

Two girls on horses (Mickey and Gayle)

come to the water's edge and taunt us

We carry our catch to our mothers to our Grama's kitchen stove

to our mouths to our hearts to our tears.

Fourth of July joy in the street -

coins in sawdust, egg throws, contests

Wayne in leather fringes,

riding his white Fancy

The beauty - take me - the

love, carry me, like my Mama

and my Daddy, carrying me back to bed, asleep, aware, of peace

take my Moma to her Mama - take us home

eyes of Jesus

to Uncle Cliff, to Aunt Betty who prayed for the Holy Spirit

and Jesus spoke to her.

To Aunt Helen's laughter

To Grama's fresh bread

High place in Itasca

The birch trees we climbed

the upstairs beds, the frogs

the model T, the new well, the pink bathroom,

the freezer full of food

The Nancy Drew, the brown stairwell,

Buckets of raspberries, cold in the fridge.

"I love my love"

-Anne Simms