Dorothy Mae Simmons

August 1, 1926- October 7, 2017

Dorothy (Dottie) Simmons passed away at her home in Battlement Mesa, Colorado in the early morning hours of October 7, 2017. She was born August 1, 1926 to James Henry Gordon and Lucy Sophia Moore at their home in Grafton, Ontario, the first of three children. Growing up, she enjoyed spending time with her brother Harvey and sister Margaret, skating, hockey, skiing, and playing the piano. She graduated from Cobourg Collegiate High School, then worked as a senior lab assistant to the chief chemist of Coca-Cola of Canada in Toronto.

Dottie met her husband Frank Peter (Pete) Simmons at a YMCA dance in Cleveland, Ohio. Their courtship included many letters between them, before Dottie and Pete married on August 2, 1952 in Grafton. Louise Dickinson Rich, the author of We Took to the Woods, gave the newlyweds the use of her home “Forest Lodge” in Middledam, Maine for their honeymoon. In their early married life, Dottie and Pete operated “The Island”, a hunting and fishing lodge in Richardson, Maine. It was there Dottie cultivated a lifelong love for nature, animals and the outdoors.

Dottie’s son Gordon Scott was born in Maine in 1954, her daughter Gaye Lucille was born 1955 in Connecticut, and her son Peter Craig Simmons was born 1956 in Rochester, New York. With the three children, Dottie and Pete set out to find a camp on a lake for the family, and found Ledgerock Lodge in Tupper Lake, NY in 1958. This spot became the center of the family’s summer life with Dottie as the joyfully hospitable hostess. It was not uncommon for her to entertain more than thirty guests at a time. Life-long friends recall Dottie’s delicious cooking, which included raspberry pies made from local wild berries and her famous meatloaf. At camp, Dottie played the piano, sometimes at the same time with a harmonica, leading singalongs through wide selections of music. Dottie loved to fish, favoring the excitement of casting off the dock with a Tiny Torpedo surface lure. She caught a surprising number of fish this way. Three generations of Dottie’s family have cherished memories of Dottie with them at Tupper Lake.

During the children’s school years, the family lived in Rochester, Binghamton, and Centerport, New York. Dottie chronicled these times, with her impeccable handwriting, in many letters to her mother, other relatives, and friends, emphasizing her love of family and life’s good moments. Dottie and Pete moved to Colorado in the late 1970s, living on the front range in Evergreen and near Boulder until their home burned to the ground in the Sugarloaf fire in 1989. Thereafter they moved out to the majestic area near Glenwood Springs, eventually settling in Battlement Mesa. As an avid and accomplished skier, Dottie enjoyed skiing nearby Sunlight Mountain with family and friends until she was eighty years old.

A dear friend shared her memory of how Dottie was always there for all of us:

I immediately thought about my wedding day…you remember, the torrential rain and wind on the lake and us trying to have a wedding at Silver Birches. And there she was, Sweet Dottie! I have very vivid memories of her sitting at our piano (probably wearing emeralds and an orange dress). She was singing and playing “Morning Has Broken” in the midst of the chaos of the storm. She played it over and over again, and then I guess we decided that the wedding should begin. Always a smile and never an unkind word from her lips. She was a trooper. May her memory be a blessing for all who knew and loved her.

She is survived by her husband, F. Peter Simmons, her son Gordon Scott Simmons, daughter-in -law Olivia Vallier Simmons both of Scotts Valley, CA, her daughter Gaye Lucille Simmons of Essex Junction, VT, her sister Margaret Ryerson of Grafton, ONT, her brother Harvey Gordon of Cobourg ONT and her four grandchildren Travis, Grant, Portia and Giselle. She is preceded in death by her son Peter Craig Simmons.

A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that friends make a donation in her memory to Colorado Animal Rescue of Glenwood Springs, 2801 County Road 114, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 online at www.coloradoanimalrescue.org/donate/.

Arrangements under the direction of Martin Mortuary, Grand Junction, CO.