| Notes |
- Roscoe & Elsie Simmons' Story...
Most children are fortunate if they have both sets of grandparents in their lives but we were lucky to have the addition of my Great-Uncle Roscoe and Great-Aunt Elsie, who were really like an extra set of grandparents. I will always remember my Uncle Roscoe’s smile and good-natured laugh during a rousing game of cards. He also loved to play the “hands game” with me; this was our own personal greeting and we did it every time up until the very last time in 1980 when he visited us in California. Roscoe had a twinkle in his eye that was warm and inviting. Although his hearing failed in later years, his mind was sharp and his memories of the Simmons family stories were precise and vivid.
Aunt Elsie was so sweet, with her high-pitched voice, beaming smile, and loving hugs. My fondest memories were of her teaching me to sew with a needle and thread and taking me to lunch the day I lost my first tooth. She took me out for a special lunch and as I bit into my hot dog, I realized my loose tooth had finally come out. Of course, I had to retrieve the tooth so the Tooth Fairy would visit me later. We giggled as we tried to find the tooth among all the onions I had on my hot dog! We finally found it and Aunt Elsie laughed to think a little girl could eat so many onions (and I still love onions!).
Roscoe served in France during WWI. When he returned to Waukegan, he continued in the Simmons Flour & Feed family business with his father, Peter Rouse Simmons. Roscoe was smitten with Elsie Clark and they married in 1922. Although they had hoped to start a family of their own, they would never have any children. They always treated my father Loren and his sister Virginia like their own children, and we always included them in all holiday gatherings. They also had a very special bond with each other, perhaps because they only had one other. As I find myself living a life without any children, I am beginning to understand just how deep that bond can be.
As I've grown older and wiser, I realize how much family meant to them. Maybe this was because they had no children and wanted to make sure their memories lived on. Uncle Roscoe and Aunt Elsie did more to preserve their past than any other family member. They saved the precious mementos to pass down to future generations. I remember how they would each tell me about the family stories through pictures, bibles, and other treasured memories. Roscoe saved pieces of paper with names of his grandparents, their birthplace and birth dates. I could not have created our family tree without the information they provided. Perhaps their love of genealogy came from a deeper understanding of the families they were raised in because these were the only families they would ever know. Maybe this was the kindred spirit I shared with them as a little girl, not realizing that I would walk their same path as an adult.
When I was in Waukegan in 1983, Aunt Elsie asked me to come over for a visit. She laid out her family treasures and said she wanted me to have them because she knew they had held my fascination ever since I was a little girl. She took out the items one by one, carefully explaining their history as I took notes. When she showed me Uncle Roscoe’s baby blanket, she started to cry and I told her that she did not have to give me anything if she was not ready. “No,” she said, “I know you will take care of them and pass them on.” I left that day with a heavy heart but I was filled with such gratitude that she entrusted me with these precious items. Aunt Elsie’s health would soon start to fail, leading to dementia. This would be the last time I would see her before her death in 1994.
While I don’t have any children of my own, I have many nieces and a nephew to whom I will pass on my treasures. I still have each of the heirlooms she gave me and I will always keep them safe. I will tell their story to future generations just as Aunt Elsie and Uncle Roscoe told me.
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Simmons-Truax-Godbout-Ames Family Tree
1897 - 1980 (83 years)
d. 2 Mar 1936, Waukegan, IL 
