BetteRuth Simmons-Peyton

BetteRuth (Reeder) Simmons-Peyton was born in 1926 at her parents farm
home about 7 miles northeast of Hennessey, OK. She attended Hennessey High School and graduated valedictorian of her senior class. She next completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education at Oklahoma Baptist University. She taught 2 years in high school at Hitchcock, OK. She then went to Oklahoma City to work as a full-time church secretary. While in that position she met and married Donald George Simmons. They had 2 sons, Timothy Donald and Stephen Earl. Don's work required him to be transferred often. They were first transferred to Roswell, NM. Several transfers later they were transferred to Phoenix, AZ. BetteRuth went back to school and earned her Master's degree in Education after which she began teaching at Phoenix College, one of the schools in the Maricopa Community College system. BetteRuth taught in this system for 31 years until retirement. Don died of a massive heart attack in 1993. BetteRuth continued to teach until 1997 when she fully retired. In 2004, BetteRuth went on a church mission trip to China where she met Jack Peyton. On April 23, 2005, BetteRuth and Jack were married. They were fortunate to have each other for several years even though they weren't the kind of years that they had envisioned when they wed, but God blessed them with this; His Holy Spirit and drawn them ever closer to Him and each other. BetteRuth is survived by her husband, Jack; 2 sons, Tim and Steve; daughter-in-law, Jean; 3 grandsons, Christian, Jacob and Matthew; 4 step daughter-in-laws, Renee, Denise, Jacki and Vanessa, 2 step son-in-laws; Todd and Andrew; 5 step grandsons, Daniel, Andrew, Jonny, Jacob and Joseph, 1 step granddaughter, Ashley and her husband, Joshua and a great granddaughter, Peyton. Services will be held at Apollo Baptist Church at 11611 N. 51st Avenue, Phoenix, on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 10AM. Interment will follow at National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona