Kathleen Alexia Sims

SIMS, Kathleen Alexia (Holub), wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, passed away peacefully in her home on December 8, 2025, after years of declining health. Born on January 26, 1946 to Alex and Anna Marie (Fischer) Holub, Kathy grew up in Detroit, Michigan, sharing her childhood with her sisters, Mary Louise Holub and Christine Flaherty (Holub).
As a child, Kathy voyaged with her mother by boat across the Atlantic Ocean and then by train from Hamburg to her mother's hometown in Weil im Schönbuch in southern Germany. There, in the post-war years, she gifted her cousins the first pieces of chewing gum they had ever seen. As an adult, she would visit Germany frequently, particularly for its Christmas markets. She often snuck a pretzel in her pocket on the plane ride back home.
Kathy and Eddie Murphy had an unexpected connection – Kathy and Murphy's character in Beverly Hills Cop both graduated from Mumford High School in Detroit, a bit of 1980s movie trivia which brought her some measure of pride.
Kathy worked first as a secretary at AAA Motor Club and then
at Burroughs Corporation, where she met her future husband, Richard W. Sims. Their marriage endured for 51 years until his passing in 2020, and they had four children, Christopher, twins Melissa and a beautiful baby boy (both deceased), and Elizabeth. They raised their family in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and in Roswell, Georgia. She lived the last 15 years of her life in Mebane, North Carolina, near family. No matter where she lived, she was devoted to reading historical fiction from her local library. If there were horses on the book cover, that was a bonus. She enjoyed drinking coffee (two creams) from Dunkin' Donuts. She didn't care what car she drove so long as it was blue. Paul was her favorite Beatle. The most recent concert she attended, in the pouring rain with her son, was Ed Sheeran in 2024.
Kathy was a great cook and baker, preparing classic dishes for her family such as Hawaiian Chicken, Salisbury Steak, and when Richard was out of town, "German Pancakes" for the kids. Then, one evening in 1988, she decided in a small act of rebellion that she was done cooking dinners. But her apple pies, butter horns, and pinwheel cookies continued as recently as this past Thanksgiving.
Kathy loved animals and the smell of farms. She was blessed to have a series of dogs – Elsie, Gompers, Annie, Lucy, and Gryff-Endor – in her life. Over the last six months, two neighborhood cats would sneak into her house almost daily to spend time with her.
Kathy was a steadfast friend to her neighbors. She volunteered for any activities at her children's schools. She herself was a creative and intuitive educator, a talent she brought to over twenty years of teaching pre-school part-time. Her superpower was sewing, which included membership in the Smocking Guild of Atlanta. There she and her friends sewed gowns for premature babies in intensive care.
Nothing gave her more joy than to then become, in the last two decades of her life, "Oma," where all her joys and passions joined together in support of the growth and nurturing of Gretchen, Karl, and Judson: sewing their clothes and playing sing-along music with them; hikes at Poet's Walk and vacations in Hilton Head; 1,000 piece puzzles and watercolor paintings; and what had to be hundreds and hundreds of after school pick-ups, with snacks and juice boxes in carefully packed coolers in the back seat. Her devotion to them was unbounded.
We will all miss her every day.
Kathy is survived by her sisters, Mary Louise Holub and Christine (Fred) Flaherty; her children: Christopher Sims and his wife, Kathleen Colville; Elizabeth Deal; her grandchildren: Judson Deal, Karl Sims, and Margaret Sims. A private family service will be held later in December in Tipp City, Ohio.