JoAnn Klepsig Sims

On January 18, 2025, Sylvia JoAnn Klepsig Sims died peacefully in her sleep at home surrounded by her family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

JoAnn was preceded in death by her husband of 61 years, Clyde Floyd Sims and her son, Adam Russell Sims.

Survivors include her sons; Christopher Clyde Sims, Peter Klepsig Sims (David Cowdery) and Patrick O'Brian Sims (Phillip Kent); and a daughter, Mary Pamela Sims Shumate (Chuck Shumate). JoAnn's grandchildren include: Clayton Addison Shumate (Erica Shumate), Allyson Blair Shumate, Collin Sims Shumate (Caitlin Shumate), Emma Grace Sims, Mollie Miller Sims, and great-grandson Wesley Raymond Shumate. JoAnn also leaves behind her special children: Belle and Josie.

JoAnn was born in Anniston, Alabama on the 4th day of November 1934, to Peter Earl Klepsig and Elvira Pierce Klepsig. She was the youngest of four children, including her brothers James Klepsig and David Klepsig and one sister Mary Nell Klepsig Price. JoAnn's mother died when she was four years old so she grew up without her mother. JoAnn graduated from Miller Lanier High School in Macon, Georgia in 1953 and attended business school for one year after. It was at this time that she married Clyde, and they began building a family together in Birmingham, Alabama. JoAnn and Clyde moved to Tuscaloosa in 1960. In the years following, JoAnn was primarily a homemaker until 1968 when she volunteered at the church school to fill in for the cafeteria manager position until a permanent replacement could be found. JoAnn's temporary job lasted 18 and a half years before she left Holy Spirit School. In 1988, JoAnn became the cafeteria manager for Tuscaloosa Academy until leaving in 2001. For the next twenty years, she worked as the office manager and bookkeeper for her son's law practice.

JoAnn touched many people's lives throughout her life and through her work always pouring all of herself into any challenge that came along. JoAnn was passionate about her responsibilities and often unrelenting with the high standards she placed on herself and others. Half-measures were never tolerated, but there was never any doubt that if she loved you, she loved you completely and wholly.

Honorary pallbearers include: Dr. Clint McIntyre and special friend, Nikki Cameron, at North River Primary Care; special neighbor and friend, Jimmy Powell; Karey Hass, Monte Haynes, Jerome Richardson and Gio Mubarak.

JoAnn will be interred in the columbarium at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Tuscaloosa in a private ceremony with the family.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations to The Canine Compassion Fund, Inc. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Hospice of West Alabama, or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital be made in her honor.