XXIV

IDA ELLA PEGRAM⁸ AND DESCENDANTS

IDA ELLA PEGRAM⁸ (Samuel William⁷, Samuel Gilliam⁶, Edward⁵, Daniel⁴, Edward³, Daniel², George¹⁾, my Mother, was the youngest daughter of Samuel William Pegram and Martha Jane Taylor (4, 115), Figure 23. She was born in Falkner, Mississippi, 3 September 1885. When she was three years of age her family moved to Ripley, Mississippi, about seven miles south of Falkner, and the county seat of Tippah County. As previously related, her father opened a general mercantile business when he moved to Ripley. The family lived on Jackson Street, across and just north of the Cole-Thurmond-Cox house, and next door to the Simon Finger home. Ida lived there until she was nine years of age, when her family moved to the Hindman place, one mile east of town.

She attended school in Ripley, but sometime after the family moved to the farm she attended school at Park's Chapel. This was because of a teacher, Mrs. Lizzie Hunt, wife of Dr. E.N. Hunt, whom her father thought was an excellent teacher. My mother next went to the Dumas Institute, at the time one of the best schools in the area. This was about the time that it was headed by Professor L.H. Jobe and R.M. Adams, later a Ripley physician. A number of students lived too far away to commute over the unimproved dirt roads, and boarded at Dumas, as was the case with my mother. She boarded at the home of Dr. Will Murry, a physician. He had a daughter, Patty Etta, with whom my mother roomed. Patty Etta later married Dr. Adams, who had taught at the Dumas school. He practiced medicine in Ripley until he died.

While my mother was at Dumas she became ill during an epidemic of typhoid fever, called slow fever at the time, probably because it lasted so long. The principal treatment was to starve the patient, and treat them symptomatically, in an effort to give them some relief. Actually there was not much that was known to do, and the disease was often fatal, no doubt assisted by starvation. My mother was in bed for weeks and almost succumbed. She no doubt would have had my grandmother not taken matters into her own hands and given her some food.

After Dumas my mother went to school at Chalybeate, Mississippi, formerly the Chalybeate Springs Institute. This was about 20 miles north of her home, near the Tennessee border. She was probably about 17 at the time. The railroad from Ripley ran through Walnut, which was two miles west of Chalybeate, with Muddy Bottom in between. At least most of the distance from Ripley could be traveled by rail. While at Chalybeate my mother boarded with a local family. The school was a private institution, owned and operated by the McKinstry family, and a number of them taught there. There was a great demand for graduates of the Chalybeate school. By 1896 the school was furnishing 80 percent of all of the public school teachers in Tippah County. This was understandable from the curriculum. Some of the courses listed in the 1897 catalogue were: trigonometry, calculus, Horace, Levy, algebra, English, history, Mississippi history, mental philosophy, beginning Greek, Homer, mental arithmetic, higher arithmetic, parliamentary law, debating, physics, science, and normal methods of teaching. Complete courses were also offered in business, classics, music and art (118).

About 25 years after my mother was in school at Chalybeate I graduated from the same institution, which had become a county school. Four days prior to my mother's death, at which time she was critically ill, there was a reunion at the Chalybeate School, 29 May 1981. Because of my mother's illness I was in Memphis at the time, and drove to Chalybeate with my sister, Natha, and a friend. There were only three there from the Class of 1927, when Lois, my wife, and I graduated. I do not recall the

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earliest year represented, but if my mother had been there she would easily have been the earliest student. I only wish that she could have been able to attend.

My mother studied music for a number of years. She had music at Ripley, and when she went to Dumas she continued, and played the guitar as well as the piano, which was her main instrument. At Chalybeate she continued music and the piano under Miss Bess Ray. After Chalybeate she returned to Ripley and studied music under Miss Emma Norris. I recall her playing the piano when I was small, and she would often sing a popular piece of that time. Her father obtained a grand concert piano, and gave this to my mother in about 1922. It was lost when our home burned in 1925.

My grandmother's sister, mother's aunt Fannie (Sarah Frances), from west of Blue Mountain, Mississippi, would sometimes visit with them in Ripley. My mother went home with her for a visit sometime in 1904 or 1905. There was a week long religious meeting being held at Flat Rock Church, near where she was visiting. This was a common practice during the summer months. My mother attended with her aunt, and here she met my father, Britt Leon Simmons. They went together for about 18 months, and were married on 8 April 1906. The wedding was performed by the Reverend W. E. Berry, whose wife was Modena Lowrey Berry, "Mother Berry" of Blue Mountain College. Professor Berry, together with General Mark Perrin Lowrey, his father-in-law, owned and operated the college at the time. It was later taken over by the Baptist Denomination and has been operated by them to the present day, 1984.

The wedding of my mother and father was at the antebellum home of the bride, one mile east of Ripley. Relatives of the groom who attended were: Albert Simmons, brother; Caroline Simmons, sister: Emma Simmons, sister; Quin Hunter, uncle by marriage, and Bell Hunter, a cousin.

My father was the son of William Beaureguard Simmons, who was born 19 July 1859 at Saulsbury, Tennessee. He, his ancestry and descendants are treated in the book Descendants ofJohn Simmons of North Carolina 1760, published by me in 1979, (119)This is deposited in the Tippah County, Mississippi Library, the Genealogical Department of the Church of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah; the Library of Congress and in the State Libraries or Archives of all the Southern States, and elsewhere.

My father was reared on his parents' farm southwest of Blue Mountain, Mississippi. Immediately after marriage my parents moved into a house on my grandfather's farm, that was formerly the home of Dr. Caswell Simmons, uncle of my grandfather. After a brief stay my father bought a farm in Benton County, formerly owned by his grandfather, Hardeman Carroll Simmons, which was only a few miles west of his father's farm. My parents were living there when I was born, 5 June 1907. After a year or two my father sold the place and bought another adjoining his father's farm in Tippah County. Shortly thereafter we moved into the town of Blue Mountain, where my father had a meat market and grocery store. Due to ill health he sold the store, and after a brief stay in Memphis, settled on a farm in the

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Manning-Shady Grove Community, about five miles west of Ripley. The family then consisted of my parents, me and my sister Natha, who was born in Blue Mountain. The location of the farm was SE1% of NE% of S.18, T.4, R3E, with additional land just north of the county road, where the house stood. In addition to the farm, the family owned a lumber mill, a cotton gin and a corn or grist mill. We lived there until 1925 when our home, just remodeled, was destroyed by fire in March. The family lived in a tenant house that was on the place, until the fall, and then moved into Ripley. They were there until 1933, when they moved to Memphis. My father was not in good health at the time. He had a long terminal illness and died 12 December 1936, apparently of carcinoma of the colon. He was buried at Flat Rock Church, west of Blue Mountain, along with his parents and his grandfather.

When my father died five of the six children were still living at home. I was at the time living at Ames, Iowa, and was the only one married. In fact, I had been away from home most of the time since I left for school in 1925. The other children ranged in ages from 14 to 27. One married in 1938, one in 1939, and two in 1940. My father was not a man who had accumulated wealth, and upon his death my mother took the responsibility of planning and managing for the financial needs of the family, and a great job she did. This was in the days of the Great Depression, and unless one has experienced it he cannot appreciate the difficulty, as compared with conditions of today. Everything that one bought was inexpensive in terms of today's prices, but when unskilled labor was getting fifty cents or a dollar per day, the cost of commodities was relatively very high. The most tragic aspect of the period was that many people had essentially no income at all. There was simply no work to be had. (Government relief and food stamps did not exist, so that the people were able to maintain their most precious assets; their self respect, moral integrity, pride and independence, which is often lacking in our more socialistic society of today.) In spite of the Depression, my mother brought the family through with few scars.

In my opinion my mother was an unusual person. She had a keen and strong sense of right and wrong. She was a life long devoted Christian. She was a member of the Temple Baptist Church in Memphis for 46 years, and was active in its work for most of that period.

She was a benevolent person and a respected and helpful neighbor. Her home was always open to family and friends. She played succor to a number of young relatives and friends who went to Memphis to find employment in the city. She not only gave some of the girls temporary abode in her home until they could get established, but often was instrumental in getting them placed in a position. Some of them considered her a second mother, and kept in frequent touch with her for as long as she lived.

My mother had a good mind and an enduring body. She was like both of her parents, tenacious and determined in any responsibility that she undertook. If she found however that something was impossible to accomplish, she had the ability to accept it philosophically. She had a good sense of humor, and her outlook was positive until the end. It can be concluded that she possessed, in the finest tradition, the spirit, integrity, moral strength and devotion to duty of her ancestors. Her personality and sincerity attracted life long friends, and she had many of them. She was in good physical and mental health until about six months before her death. On 13 May 1979, when mother was ninety three years and ten months of age, she was five feet and seven inches in height, and weighed one hundred and forty pounds. She began to fail physically about Christmas of 1980, after having an apparent virus infection. She never regained her strength. A few hours before she died she told us that she loved us, and quietly slipped away, at 5:30 A.M., 2 June 1981. She would have been 96 years of age on the third of September following. She was buried in Memphis Memorial Park, along with two children that had preceded her. Thus ended a long, noble, yet simple life, which will linger in her descendants for generations yet to be born. I was working on this book at the time of my mother's death. She had mentioned several times that she hoped that I would finish, while she was still able to read and enjoy it. To my sorrow this did not happen.

Although my mother lived a long life, she had a number of close calls during her years. She almost died when I was born, with what we now know as toxemia. About 1909 she had a ruptured appendix. There was only a country doctor in attendance, who kept the area packed in ice for weeks. She miraculously survived. The rupture was visually confirmed when she had her first surgery, in Memphis, at the age of 89. This was for the removal of her gall bladder. She responded like a 20-year-old. The next
 

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year, she was operated on for a prolapsed uterus, and again made a rapid recovery. She suffered several bouts with malaria during her younger days. Morbidity and mortality are not necessarily related.

The following is an obituary:

The Southern Sentinel, Ripley, Mississippi
Thursday, June 11, 1981
Mrs. Ida Pegram Simmons

Mrs. Ida E. Pegram Simmons, 95, of 45 S. Idlewilde, Memphis, died Tuesday, June 2, at 5:30 a.m.

She was the wife of the late Britt L. Simmons. Mrs. Simmons was born at Falkner and was a descendant of a prominent 17th Century Virginia family. She was the daughter of the late Samuel William Pegram and Martha Jane Taylor, well-known Ripley residents. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons moved to Memphis in 1934.

Mrs. Simmons was a devoted Christian and was a member of the Temple Baptist Church of Memphis for 46 years. Services were held at 2:30 p.m., June 3 at the Memphis Funeral Home, Poplar Chapel with Rev. James Pardue officiating.

Pallbearers were grandsons, Dr. Grant Simmons of Slidell, La.; Herbert Simmons, Jr., Hugh Gallagher and David Simmons of Memphis; Samuel W. Simmons, III of Jacksonville, Fla., great-grandson; and William Brumley of Memphis, grandson-in-law.

Burial was in Memorial Park.

Mrs. Simmons leaves four children: Dr. Samuel William Simmons of Atlanta, Ga.; Mrs. Natha Lewis Hay, Mr. Herbert B. Simmons and Miss Jamie L. Simmons, all of Memphis; nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Two children, Britt L. Simmons, Jr. and Katybel Simmons Clayton, preceded their mother in death.

Mrs. Simmons was reared in Ripley and has a lot of friends and relatives in the area.

My father and mother had six children, three boys and three girls, alternately. They were SAMUEL WILLIAM⁹, NATHA LEWIS, BRITT LEON JR., KATYBEL, HERBERT BRYAN and JAMIE LEE.

SAMUEL WILLIAM SIMMONS⁹ (Ida Ella Pegram⁸, Samuel William⁷, Samuel Gilliam⁶, Edward⁵, Daniel⁴, Edward³, Daniel², George¹) was the first born of Ida Ella Pegram and Britt Leon Simmons.

This section is an abbreviated version of an autobiography published in 1979. It is not favorably comparable to the portrayal of the many illustrious individuals previously considered. This is not readily correctible, and after 77 years I have concluded that I will have to bask in the light of past generations, rather than to illuminate this one.

I was born 5 June 1907 in Benton County, Mississippi, at the homesite of my great grandfather, Hardeman Carroll Simmons, my grandfather, William Beaureguard Simmons, and my father Britt Leon Simmons. This was specifically NW 1/4, S.21, T.5, R.2E, and SW1/4, S.21, T.5, R.2E.

The two houses that were on the place are no longer in existence. I was named for my maternal grandfather, Samuel William Pegram.
By the time that I had reached school age we were living in the Manning-Shady Grove Community, west of Ripley, where we moved about 1911. I went to school at Manning, a two teacher school, which no longer exists. We walked to school, usually several family groups together. We were never in a hurry. Sometimes we played on the way home, and sometimes we fought, but in either case we had fun. After completing the eighth grade at Manning, I attended the Shady Grove School; a four teacher school two miles west of our home. I spent a semester at the Ripley High School, but graduated at the

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Tippah County Agricultural High School at Chalybeate, Mississippi. The Chalybeate School was a boarding institution with students from a wide area. It was there that I met Lois Grantham, who was in the same graduating class.

Ina Lois Grantham was born in Kemper County, Mississippi, 23 January 1910. She was the daughter of Adam Cleveland Grantham and Kate Cross Baker of Electric Mills, Mississippi. She attended the Mississippi State College for Women at Columbus, and Blue Mountain College. It was while attending summer school at Blue Mountain, in 1928, that we were married.

We were out of school for a year, but returned to the Mississippi State University, in the fall of 1929. I had already completed the freshman year, and by attending a summer session at Blue Mountain College in 1930, I was able to graduate with my entering class in 1931. I obtained a B.S. degree, in Zoology and Entomology from the School of Science.

We had given considerable thought to pursuing graduate work, or attending medical school, following graduation. This was 1931, in the depth of the Great Depression, and when I was offered a position with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the Bureau of Entomology, I accepted. We moved to Washington, D.C. in August 1931. During the next four years I conducted research on the use of blowfly larvae in the treatment of human osteomyelitis. This was known as maggot therapy. The work was carried out in laboratories in Washington and at hospitals in Washington and Baltimore. This novel treatment was developed by the late Dr. William S. Baer of Johns Hopkins University, as a result of observations on the battlefield in France during World War I. It soon became a choice treatment in many hospitals, until replaced by sulfa drugs and later antibiotics.

SAMUEL WILLIAM JR.¹⁰, our first child, was born 8 March 1932, three and one half years after our marriage.

During our stay in Washington I graduated' from the George Washington University, with a Master's degree in Zoology in June 1934.

In August 1935 we moved to Ames, Iowa, where I conducted research on parasites of cattle and horses for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and did graduate work at the Iowa State University. I

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was awarded the Ph.D. degree in 1938. My field of study was the medical and public health branches of biology and pathology. The time spent in Iowa was some of our best.

In the summer of 1939 we moved to Florida. World War II was in progress, and a laboratory was established in Panama City to conduct research on the biology and control of hordes of biting flies, Stomoxys calcitrans, which were a severe problem to the defense establishments in the area, and to the livestock industry and the human population. The work resulted in a large operational control program, with the cooperation of the U.S. Public Health Service. I was consultant to the Public Health Service and directed their aspect of the program, as well as the technical phases of the entire operation.

Our second child, Grant Pegram, was born in Panama City on 6 November 1941. In 1944 I accepted a Reserve Commission with the U.S. Public Health Service and we moved to Savannah, Georgia in April of that year.

The Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, headquartered in Atlanta, was conducting malaria control in some 14 southern states, in cooperation with the respective State Health Departments. Activities were concentrated about army and navy bases and other defense related establishments. Work was also conducted on control of the vectors of yellow fever, dengue and endemic typhus. My charge was to develop and direct an investigational program, at the Henry Rose Carter Memorial Laboratory, to guide the operational activities of the M. C. W. A., later to become the Center for Disease Control. The initial problem of getting a professional staff was accomplished largely through the commissioning of new officers and by transfer of officers from other assignments. The laboratory soon gained national and international prominence. In 1947 we moved the activities to the much larger vacated Venereal Disease Hospital on Oatland Island, just east of Savannah. The staff which grew to some 160 people, consisted mostly of Ph.D. level scientists, physicians, public health engineers, and administrative staff, technicians and crafts personnel. In 1947 I accepted a commission in the regular corps of the Public Health Service, in lieu of returning to the Department of Agriculture, from which I was on military furlough.

The reputation of the laboratories continued to grow, and brought many distinguished visitors from this country and abroad. Among the early visitors was Dr. Paul Muller of Basel, Switzerland, the developer of DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), for which he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He invited me to collaborate in the writing of a three volume series of books on this compound and its use. I took the responsibility for the volume on the medical and veterinary aspects of the subject. I wrote the public health and epidemiology portion and served as general editor. The book was published in 1959 by Birkhauser Verlag, Basel. Among many other noted visitors, from throughout the world, were Sir George McDonald and Sir Gordon Covell, Great Britain's renowned men of tropical medicine.

The laboratories acted as host for many scientific and public health meetings and conferences, both national and international. Many publications emanated from the laboratories. I contributed some 80 or more articles to scientific and medical journals during my career (120).
The World Health Organization created an Expert Committee on Insecticides and I, along with Dr. Bob Galley of England and Dr. J. Duguet of France were the three members of the committee nucleus. I served on the Expert Panel on Insecticides and Panel on Toxicology for many years. A number of trips were made to Europe to chair meetings and to serve on committees. My association with the W. H. O. gave me pleasant and rich experiences working with scientists of many nations. Lois made trips with me in 1950, and Lois and son Grant, in 1956. Travel was always by ocean liner.

At Savannah we lived in the colonial house of the officer in charge, near the laboratories, and had the pleasure of entertaining many interesting foreign and domestic visitors.

In 1953 the malaria control program, which had been continued to eradicate the disease from the United States had succeeded. This necessitated reorientation of the work and reorganization. The Savannah Laboratories were combined with two other organizations and I moved to Atlanta to direct the combined activities. The new program soon included research on arthropod borne encephalitis, schistosomiasis, diarrhea and dysentery, hospital acquired infections, streptococcal diseases, viral hepatitis and other infectious diseease. The program on toxicology of economic poisons was

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augmented, and operational programs were established on environmental health with various local and state health departments. Activities covered wide areas of the nation, from Puerto Rico to Hawaii.

By 1966 the Public Health Service had developed an extensive contract research and epidemiological program in Washington, D.C., on the health hazards of pesticides. This was combined with the Toxicology Program of the Center for Disease Control and moved to Atlanta. I was appointed Director of the program, which became the Division of Community Studies. In about two years the entire activity was transferred to the Food and Drug Administration, and shortly thereafter to the newly created Environmental Protection Agency, each transfer being a backward step, so far as program accomplishments were concerned. Ah! the wonders of politics and government administration.

I retired from the P. H. S. Commissioned Corps 1 July 1972, at the grade of Scientist Director (full colonel), but continued for an additional year as civilian director of the Division of Community Studies with the E. P. A. I retired completely 1 October 1972, after 41 years of service. For most of this time the work was pleasant, gratifying and carried a significant sense of accomplishment. During the last few years the turmoil of frequent reorganizations, politics and over rapid growth did much to downgrade the desirability and effectiveness of government research; a trend that seems to be continuing.

Beginning in 1966 the Simmons' became interested in antique clocks, and later watches, and devoted considerable time and travel to collecting and studying these items and attending horological meetings. It has been a gratifying experience, and items have been passed on to our two sons to become family heirlooms.

I have been active in the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, and in the local Atlanta Chapter. I am past secretary, past director and past president of the local chapter, and am a fellow of the national association. In 1979 I was elected to a four-year term as national director, which was completed in June 1983. We have remained in Atlanta since retiring and have kept busy working with genealogy and horology.

An autobiography, (120) previously mentioned, is deposited in the state libraries of most southern states, the Library of Congress and elsewhere. A biographical sketch appears in a number of biographical works, including: American Men and Women of Science, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Men of Achievement, Personalities of the South, Leaders in American Science, Dictionary of International Biography, etc. One of these is appended.

A most interesting and pleasant post retirement event occurred in Savannah, Georgia in April 1983. The Savannah Laboratories were closed in 1973. A number of people who were retired and still living in Savannah decided to try and have a reunion of previous members of the staff, some of whom had been away for thirty or more years. Contacts were made with all whose addresses could be found.

A total of 150 were there, from all over the country, from California to New England to Puerto Rico. It was a gratifying experience to see the cohesiveness and loyalty of these former co-workers after so many years.

The following is from Marquis Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 19th Edition 1984.

SIMMONS, SAMUEL WILLIAM, retired public health official; b. Benton County, Miss., June 5, 1907; s. Britt L. and Ida E. (Pegram) S.; B.Sc. with honors, Miss. State U., 1931; A.M., George Washington U., 1934; Ph.D., Iowa State U., 1938; m. Lois Grantham, Aug. 5, 1928; children —Samuel William, Grant P. With U.S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Entomology, 1931 -44; with USPHS, 1944 -71. dir. Carter Meml. Lab., 1944-47; chief tech. devel. br., 1947-53, chief tech. br. communicable disease center 1953-66; chief pesticides program Natl. Communicable Disease Center, Atlanta, 1966-68; dir. div. pesticide community studies FDA, 1968-71; dir. div. pesticide community studies EPA, 1971-72, ret.; vis. lectr. tropical pub. health Harvard U., 1952-67; asso. preventive medicine and community health Emory U., 1957-72; USPHS rep. Fed. Com. on Pest Control. Recipient Alumni Achievement award George Washington U., 1946, Alumni Centennial Citation award Iowa State U., 1958. Distinguished Service medal USPHS, 1965, William Crawford Gorgas medal Assn. Mil. Surgeons U.S., 1968, Distinguished Career award EPA, 1972, Hon. cons. Army Med. Library, 1940-53; adv. bd. Inst. Agrl. Medicine, U. Iowa Sch. Medicine, U.S. Japan Com. on Sci. Cooperation Diplomate Am. Bd. Microbiology. Fellow Am. Soc. Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (councilor 1953), Chem. Spltys. Mfrs. Assn. Interpol. corn. pest control; Interagy. com. water resources, (subcom.

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vector control, chin. 1964-66). U.S.-Mex. Border Health Assn., WHO (Chm. com. on pesticides 1951, 56, 57), AMA (corn. on insecticides 1950-59, corn. on toxicology 1960). Research Soc. Am., Entomol. Soc. Am.. Natl. Malaria Soc. (sec.-treas. 1951), Nati. Environ. Health Assn.. Agri. Research Inst., Am. Mosquito Control Assn., Armed Forces Pest Control Bd., Nat. Research Council, Nat. Assn. Watch and Clock Collectors (fellow, nat. dir. 1979-83, mem. awards corn.). Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi. Gamma Sigma Delta, Los Hidalgos. Contbr. articles to proft jours.: editor and co-author: The Insecticide DDT and its Significance, vol. II; contbr. to Human and Veterinary Medicine, 1959. Home: 2050 Black Fox Dr. NE, Atlanta. GA 30345.

SAMUEL WILLIAM SIMMONS JR.¹⁰, son of Samuel William Simmons and Lois Grantham. and known as Bill, was born in Washington, D.C., 8 March 1932. In 1935 we moved to Ames, Iowa, and Bill attended school at Beardshear Elementary for two years before we moved to Panama City, Florida in 1939. There he attended the Cove School, and graduated from Savannah High School, Savannah, Georgia in 1950.

From 1947 until 1953 we lived on Whitmarsh Island, near the laboratories in Savannah. Our home was on Richardson's Creek, a tidal stream, immediately behind the house. Bill constructed a small boat for outboard motor, and won the junior section race of about ten miles. He later became a fast boat racer, entering races all over Georgia, and in adjoining states. He became President of the Southeastern Motorboat Association, and set up and arranged for races in the area, as well as editing and publishing the Association paper. Bill discontinued boat racing in 1958, to the relief of us all. Afterwards he obtained a pilot's license and flew his own plane for a time. Bill attended the University of Georgia in 1951-52, and then transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a member of Sigma Nu at Georgia. Bill did not graduate at Georgia Tech. He later attended school at Armstrong College in Savannah. Bill joined the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation at Marietta, Georgia in 1963, where he is in a management position in quality assurance. After joining Lockheed he took training for two years, sponsored by that organization.

Bill was married in July 1953 to Jeanna Wells of Savannah. the daughter of Lonnie Gordon Wells and Luree Hurst. This marriage ended in divorce. There was a son, SAMUEL WILLIAM SIMMONS, II¹¹ Bill married Jacqueline Goethe. on 15 February 1957. She was the daughter of John McDonald Goethe and Pearl Lee Ellis. Jacqueline had a daughter by a previous marriage, Carlene Youman. She was seven years of age at the time of her mother's marriage to Bill. She is married to Daniel N. Reitz. and they live in Adairsville, Georgia. Bill and Jacqueline live in Atlanta. and have a daughter CYNTHIA ANN¹¹.

SAMUEL WILLIAM SIMMONS III¹¹, son of Samuel William Simmons Jr. and Jeanna Wells, was born 30 September 1954. in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up living with his mother in Jacksonville, Florida, but spent his summers with his grandparents and father in Atlanta.

Samuel W. III, known as "Butch¹¹, has a bachelor's degree in both accounting and financial management from the University of North Florida. He is a Certified Public Accountant, and is Vice-President of the American Banks of Florida, in Jacksonville. He is not married, 1983.

CYNTHIA ANN SIMMONS¹¹, daughter of Samuel W. Simmons Jr. and Jacqueline Goethe was born 27 October 1959, in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from the Briarcliff High School in Atlanta, and attended DeKalb College. She was married to Frank Smith of Atlanta on

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25 May 1982. Before marriage Cindy was with the Tucker Federal Savings and Loan Association in Tucker, Georgia.

GRANT PEGRAM SIMMONS, M.D.¹⁰, Figure 27, the second son of Samuel William Simmons and Lois Grantham, was born on 6 November 1941, in Panama City, Florida. He was about two and one half years of age when we moved to Savannah, Georgia. He graduated from the Druid Hills High School in Atlanta, in 1959.

Grant attended the Emory University and the University of Georgia. He was a member of Chi Phi at Emory. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Georgia in 1963, and an M.S. in microbiology and biochemistry in 1964. His master's dissertation was "A Chemical Analysis of Cell Walls of Pseudomonas aeruginosis." Grant was accepted for medical school at both the Medical University of Georgia and the Louisiana State University Medical Center at New Orleans. He entered L.S.U. in the fall of 1964 and was awarded the M.D. Degree in June 1968. He was a member of the undergraduate Medical and Surgical Society, an honor group. He graduated seventeenth of 115 graduates of his entering class of 140. He completed a surgical internship at Emory University Hospitals in Atlanta, in June 1969. This was followed by two years on the surgical staff of the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a full grade (Lt. Commander) Surgeon. While in the service he volunteered for two months duty as ship's doctor on a Coast Guard cutter in the Atlantic.

Grant returned from Baltimore to New Orleans and completed a residency in urology at L.S.U. Charity Hospital. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Urology, and is in the private practice of medicine (urology) in Slidell, Louisiana. Grant has been Secretary-Treasurer, Vice-President and President of the Slidell Memorial Hospital Medical Staff. He was on the Executive Committee of the Medical Staff of the Hospital for seven years, and asked to be relieved in 1983. He is (1983) Secretary-Treasurer of the St. Tammany Parish Medical Society. He is on the Clinical Staff of the L.S.U. Medical School in New Orleans, the Board of Directors of the Southern Diagnostic Professional Building, Inc. and the North Shore Regional Medical Center, Slidell, Louisiana.

Grant was married to Jacqueline Armistead of Clarkston, Georgia. She is the daughter of the late Brockwell Jackson Armistead and Lucille Harkins. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia. There was a son from this marriage, DAVID GRANT¹¹, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 9 June 1968. This marriage ended in divorce. David lived with his mother in Nashville, Tennessee until 1977. He has been with his father in Slidell since that time. He is a high school student, 1984.

Grant was married to Sandra Coco of New Orleans on 19 July 1975. On 1 February 1977 Sandy died.

On 17 November 1979 Grant married Sharon Diane McIntyre Schaffer, daughter of Loretta Steed McIntyre, and adopted daughter of Edward McIntyre, at Slidell, Louisiana. They were married by the Reverend Christ Andrews, their pastor and family friend. Sharon had a son Chadwick Schaffer by a previous marriage, who has been adopted by Grant. Grant and Sharon had a son BRITT ADAM¹¹, born in Slidell 11 April 1983. Britt is for his great grandfather Simmons and Adam for his great grandfather Grantham.

NATHA LEWIS SIMMONS⁹, daughter of Britt Leon Simmons and Ida Pegram, was born 20 October 1909 in Blue Mountain, Mississippi. The origin of her name is interesting. Our mother's brother, Luther Pegram, a dentist, died at the Lewis home in Menard, Texas

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Britt died at Memphis on 22 January 1977. He was buried at Memphis Memorial Park with other family members.

KATYBEL SIMMONS⁹, daughter of Ida Pegram and Britt Leon Simmons, was born in Tippah County, Mississippi, 18 May 1915. She was Valedictorian of her graduating class at Ripley, Mississippi High School in 1933. She moved to Memphis with her parents in 1934. She was a beautician. She married Wilson Clayton of Memphis, 2 March 1938. The marriage was in Forest City. Arkansas. One child LINDA KAY¹⁰ was born of this marriage. She was delivered by caesarean section, and Katybel died a few hours later on 5 August 1947, in Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. This was her first child. Katybel was 32 years of age at death. She is buried at Memphis Memorial Park. Her husband died 13 July 1972, and is also buried in Memorial Park.

LINDA KAY CLAYTON¹⁰, the only child of Katybel Simmons and Wilson Clayton, was born 4 August 1947. She was reared at Memphis by her grandmother Simmons and her aunt, Jamie Simmons. She was educated in Memphis Schools. She married Bobby Dupree Fuller of Tuscumbia, Alabama on 25 December 1965. Bobby graduated from the University of Alabama, and is a Professional portrait artist. They live in West Palm Beach, Florida, (1983). Linda Kay and Bobby had two children: BOBBY DUPREE JR.¹¹, born in Atlanta, Georgia, 20 March 1967 and died 13 April 1967: DAMON DUPREE, born Atlanta, Georgia, 13 July 1970.

HERBERT BRYAN S1MMONS⁹, son of Ida Pegram and Britt L. Simmons, was born in Tippah County, Mississippi 5 February 1919. The Bryan is for his uncle Bryan Simmons. He attended school in Ripley, Mississippi, and graduated from Technical High School in Memphis. Herbert married Sarah Elizabeth Lawrence of Memphis in September 1940. One child was born to this union, which ended in divorce.

PATRICIA ELIZABETH SIMMONS10, only child of Herbert Simmons and Sarah Lawrence, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, January 1943. Patricia married Bryan Regan and they lived in New Jersey. They had three children, all born in New Jersey. They were:

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BRYAN LAWRENCE¹¹, b. 13 Oct. 1965.
STACEY ELIZABETH, b. 26 Dec. 1966.
REBECCA ANN, b. 11 Nov. 1968.

The marriage of Patricia and Mr. Regan ended in divorce, and Patricia married Anthony Monzione, and they had a son, MICHAEL¹¹ , born in New Jersey, 29 December 1974.

HERBERT SIMMONS⁹ married Doris Owen of Aberdeen, Mississippi, 13 February 1946. Doris was born in Aberdeen 20 December 1925. She was the daughter of Harold Auzza Owen and Corrie Mae Clark.

Herbert was with the Chicago and Southern Air Lines, before that company was acquired by Delta Airlines, but for the most of his life he operated his own business. He owned a general insurance agency in Memphis for a number of years, but sold this to a larger company. Following this he owned a restaurant, but sold this and bought a chain of confectionary vending machines, located in various factories and business buildings in Memphis. After selling this, about 1979, he has been semi-retired. He and Doris live in Memphis. Doris went with the company that bought their insurance agency and is still with them. Herbert and Doris had six children: MICHAEL OWEN¹⁰, HERBERT BRYAN, JR., BARBARA JO, BEVERLY LYNN, DAVID HAROLD and SHARON ANN.

MICHAEL OWEN SIMMONS¹⁰ was born in Memphis 6 April 1947 and died 23 April 1947. He is buried in Memphis Memorial Park.
HERBERT BRYAN SIMMONS JR.10. second child of Herbert Simmons and Doris Owen, was born in Memphis, 5 June1948. He graduated from Treadwell High School in Memphis. He served in the Field Artillery in Vietnam from 28 September 1969 to 30 September 1971. Herbert, Jr. is a Civil Servant at the Memphis Defense Department Depot. He married Sandra Arrington of Memphis, 8 June 1973. They had one child, JEFFERY CALDWELL¹¹, born 17 January 1975. Herbert Jr. and Sandra are now divorced.

BARBARA JO SIMMONS¹⁰, daughter of Herbert and Doris Simmons, was born in Memphis 1 June1949. She graduated from Treadwell High School in Memphis. Barbara married William Clifford Brumley, who is with the A.S. Barboro Company of Memphis. Barbara was the Head of Accounts for The Furniture Center in Memphis, but after a number of years resigned to spend full time at home.

Barbara usually bought her groceries at a neighborhood chain supermarket. They had a contest in 1982 wherein they gave tickets to customers for which they would win a prize if their number was later drawn. The grand prize for the region was a new Cadillac automobile, which Barbara won. It could not have happened to a nicer person. Barbara and Clifford had two children: WILLIAM CLIFFORD JR.¹¹, born in Memphis, 26 November 1968; and CHRISTOPHER LEE, born in Memphis, 17 March 1978.

BEVERLY LYNN SIMMONS¹⁰, daughter of Herbert Simmons and Doris Owen, was born in Memphis 28 February 1951. Beverly married Bruce Bryan Young in Memphis on 14 February 1970. She died 9 December 1971, and is buried in Mount Vernon Gardens in Memphis.

DAVID HAROLD SIMMONS¹⁰, son of Herbert and Doris Simmons, was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi, 24 February1952. He graduated from Kingsbury High School in Memphis. He married Susan Chappel in Memphis, 7 June 1974. David is with the sales department of the A.S. Barbaro Company of Memphis. David and Susan have two daughters, ASHLEY¹¹ and JENNIFER.

SHARON ANN SIMMONS¹⁰, youngest child of Herbert Simmons and Doris Owen, was born at Aberdeen, Mississippi, 9 September 1955. Sharon is a graduate of Kingsbury High School, and of the Memphis Vocational School. She is a Respiratory Therapist, and is Supervisor of that Department at the St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis. Sharon married Robert John Anderson in Memphis. 7 April 1978. Robert is also a Respiratory Therapist.

JAMIE LEE SIMMONS¹⁰,  daughter of Ida Pegram and Britt Leon Simmons. was born in Tippah County, Mississippi, 2 December 1921. I asked Jamie for a resume of her life and she responded as follows:

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I attended grammar school in Ripley, Mississippi, and graduated from Memphis Technical High School. I was employed by the First National Bank of Memphis (now First Tennessee National Corporation) in 1941, and worked in virtually every department of the bank. I set up the first formal training course for tellers. I was elected Personnel Officer by the Board of Directors in 1967. I was on the National Board of the National Association of Bank Women in 1968, and was Director of the Memphis Chapter of the American Institute of Banking. The greatest and most satisfying contribution that I have made was in helping my mother rear my deceased sister's (Katybel) daughter, Linda Kay Clayton Fuller.
I have never married, but have come close!, was beautiful, but have faded — am not growing old very gracefully.

. . . to which the compiler takes exceptions. Jamie is a very competent, professional woman. She is now retired and lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

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SAMUEL WILLIAM PEGRAM, JR.⁸

The following discussion of Samuel William Pegram Jr.⁸ is included in the chapter on Ida Ella Pegram⁸ and Descendants because he follows his sister chronologically, but a separate chapter is not indicated.

SAMUEL WILLIAM PEGRAM JR.⁸,  the youngest child of Samuel William Pegram and Martha Jane Taylor, was born 4 July 1891, in Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi. This was about three years after the family moved to Ripley from Falkner. He was only about three years old when the family moved to the farm, just east of town. He grew up there, and when a young man went to Massey's Business College in Birmingham. After finishing there he was in the grocery business with his brother Homer, in Pontotoc, Mississippi. William handled the bookkeeping and financial end of the business and Homer handled the operations. This arrangement apparently did not last very long. William was a merchant's broker in Lexington, Kentucky for many years. His business was apparently successful until the Great Depression of the 1930s when he quit, and for several years was engaged in the wine brokerage business. William was very fond of dogs, and kept a small kennel in Lexington.

It was about 1947 that William decided to move west. He made several trips to decide where he wanted to go. He settled on Mesa, Arizona. He bought an acreage six miles east of Mesa, directly on U.S. Highways 60, 70, 80 and 89. There he built a home and a small motel. After operating this for a number of years, he added a real estate business, and built an office on the property. The motel at that time was used almost exclusively by regular guests, older couples that would come there for the winter months.

William married Mary Prather of Woodland Mills, 1973, and wife Mary Prather Pegram. near Union City, Tennessee. She was born 8 April 1895
and died 15 June 1960 at Mesa, Arizona. She was the daughter of Dr. John Prather, a physician, and Annie Lyle Winston. In 1961 William married Florence White of Scottsdale, Arizona, and they continued to live at the same place, where William carried on his real estate business. Sometime in the late 1960s William sustained a fall from a step ladder in his garage. The fall on the concrete caused a concussion. It was not too long after that when he had a stroke. He was in the hospital and a nursing home until he died on 7 July 1973, without issue. He was buried at Mountain View Memorial Gardens in Mesa. His first wife, Mary, is likely buried there also.

There was a church adjoining William's property. Sometime before he was incapacitated he had deeded the property to the church, with the stipulation that he and Florence would live there, and would have the income from the motel and the additional house, which he had built on the property. He also continued to carry on his real estate business there. The church may have been responsible for the upkeep of the property, which they would possess upon the death of William and Florence. The foregoing arrangement was related to me through a second party, and may vary somewhat from the actual.

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