Marian Simmons

1943 - 2023

Surrounded in prayer and song by her loving family, Marian (Sames) Simmons passed away on Friday evening, August 25, 2023, in Allentown, PA, after a long and valiant fight with several auto-immune diseases. She was 80 years old.

Marian Loretta Simmons was born in July 1943, in Fountain Hill, PA to Mervin and Alberta (Best) Sames and grew up in Wilson Borough, PA. She was a graduate of Wilson High School and the Philadelphia School of Science and Art. Prior to marriage, she was a Medical Lab Technician at Easton Hospital in Easton, PA. After marrying the Rev. Donald C. Simmons in 1964, the couple moved to Ridge Valley, PA, where they served the congregation of St. John's Lutheran Church for five years. In 1970, they moved to Fleetwood, PA, where they diligently served St. Paul's Lutheran Church until 2001, and where she was actively involved in numerous volunteer organizations, including many leadership positions, in both her church and community. During that time, Marian also spent over thirty years as a pre-school teacher and seventeen years as a Lutheran Inner Mission Hospital Visitor. From 2001 to 2019, she and her husband lived in Blandon, PA, and spent many years serving Schwarzwald Lutheran Church in Reading, PA. In 2019, they moved to Luther Crest in Allentown, PA, where she became actively involved in many facets of that vibrant community.

Throughout her life, Marian was an avid gardener, floral arranger and seamstress, and took great delight in refining her incredible skills in numerous artistic disciplines. She also found immense joy in cooking and baking and loved bringing people together in social events of every shape and size to share the fruits of her culinary labors. She loved reading, traveling, decorating her home for every season of the year, relaxing on the river porch at the cabin in the Poconos, and playing all types of card games. Her favorite activity was spending time with her family and the wide and varied circles of friends that she lovingly cultivated and nurtured. She had a compassionate heart of gold and believed that the most important thing you could do with your life was to serve and help other people, including strangers, who are in need of love and care. She put that belief into practice every day of her life, in ways both large and small, and actively avoided recognition of those efforts.

She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Donald Simmons; her two children, David Simmons, and his husband, Michael Polscer, of Wilmington, DE, and Michelle (Simmons) Patterson and her husband, Robert Patterson, of Middletown, DE; her granddaughter, Amanda Gerrick of Middletown, DE; her brother, Robert Sames, and his wife, Lucinda Sames of Albrightsville, PA, and their children, Justin and Archelle; and her sister-in-law, Marilyn Simmons and her partner, William Fortmiller, of Northampton, PA.

A Service of Eucharist in celebration of her life will be held at 11:00 am on Saturday, September 9, 2023 at Christ Lutheran Church in Allentown, PA. The family will receive friends and honor Marian's memory during a luncheon reception that will be held at the church immediately following the service. The family also encourages attendees to wear bright colors to the service as it is a celebration of Marian's LIFE, which was full of beautiful colors.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that Marian's memory be honored through the planting of trees and shrubs in the Kayhart Arboretum at Luther Crest by donating online in her memory at www.diakon.org/kayhart-arboretum/how-you-can-help/ or by sending a check to: Luther Crest-Diakon, (mark "Arboretum Fund/Memory of Marian Simmons" on the memo line) and send to Luther Crest Financial Office, 800 Hausman Road, Allentown, PA 18104. Donations may also be made to Christ Lutheran Church (Memory of Marian Simmons) by sending a check to 1245 Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18102 or by making a donation online in her memory at www.christ-atown.org/. Condolences may be posted online at www.stephensfuneral.com.