SIMMONS, Katie C. (Bishop)

Funeral for Katie Colleen Bishop Simmons, 77, Cache, will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Becker Memorial Chapel with the Rev. Terry Oates, Lighthouse Church of God, and the Rev. Don Barnes, First Assembly of God, officiating. She died Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. Burial will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens Field of Honor. She was born March 18, 1932, south of Wilson at their farm, to Theodore and Beulah Blackburn Bishop. She moved with her parents and brothers to the present home place east of Cache on Dec. 7, 1941. She attended Black Jack School at Wilson, then Cache Public Schools. After graduating from Cache High School on June 4, 1949, she attended Oklahoma College for Women at Chickasha. Later she attended Dalton Business College at Lawton. She was a secretary and bookkeeper for Lawton Chamber of Commerce from 1950 to 1951, a secretary for Seitz Insurance adjusters and a bookkeeper for Dixie Department Store in Lawton. She was a foster parent for the State of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1976. She was also a smile aid assistant for Lawton Public Schools from 1989 to 1991 and a substitute teacher for Cache Public Schools from 1991 to 2002. She was a professional seamstress. She was awarded Merit Mother of the Year for the State of Oklahoma in 1986. She married Lawrence E. Simmons on Sept. 22, 1951, in Duncan. He died Sept. 6, 2004. Survivors include four children and their spouses: Rickey and Jo Lynn Simmons, Wasilla, Alaska; Rhonda and Rickey Mahaffey, Lawton; Susan and Paul Hill, Cache; and Timothy Todd and Kathleen Simmons, San Diego; many other children she helped raise; six grandchildren: Brian Griffitts, Lawton; Christopher Chad Pollock and wife Leigh Ann, Arlington, Texas; Tathena Williams and husband Stephen of Southaven, Miss.; Eleanor Halm Simmons, San Diego; Emily Maker, Austin Texas; and Dan Hill, Colorado Springs, Colo.; five great-grandchildren: Taylor and Mickayla Griffitts, Bedford, Texas; Logan Pollock, Arlington, Texas; Allison Maker, Austin, Texas; and Robert Dorrell, Cache; a brother and sister-in-law, Thurman and Roberta Bishop, Lawton; three sisters-in-law: Ermine Bishop, Lawton; and Lela Bilbrey and Geneva Simmons, both of Cache; many nieces and nephews and friends and family. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Benny Doyle Bishop. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Southwest Oklahoma, P.O. Box 2074, Lawton 73502.