A celebration of Marie’s life will be held on Saturday, April 27th, 2013, at 12:00 noon at Orvil’s home. Contact family members for directions. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Mary’s School, where her dedication as a field trip driver, as a fundraiser and as a source of inspiration in support of her granddaughters and their education never faltered. St. Mary’s School at 7900 Church St., Gilroy, CA 95020. Condolences can be made at www.HabingFamilyFuneralHome.com
Almarie Simpson died on Thursday, April 4th, 2013, at the age of 83. She is missed.
She loved fiercely. She married the love of her life, Orvil Simpson, at 18 years old and hardly spent a night apart throughout their 65-year marriage.
She had an uncanny ability to leverage pennies into financial security with a razor sharp intellect, rapier wit and a memory like a steel trap. These incredible talents took her from a telephone operator with AT&T to a top level manager who succeeded at every position she held. She balanced this practicality and prudence with an indulgence in romance novels shared by her sisters, daughters, nieces and granddaughters.
She was beautiful. She always said you had to work at your looks; that it was important not to let yourself go. She never did. When they were young, her granddaughters unanimously held the unwavering belief that she was the most glamorous woman in the world.
She traveled extensively. As a young bride, her travels began on Route 66 as she, her husband and their young children made their way from Oklahoma to California. The life of a trucker’s wife took her on many a highway and through a thousand towns.
When she retired from the phone company decades later, she and her husband took to the road again, armed with an RV nearly as long as their semi had been, but replete with a kitchen and a bed fit for a king and queen. They saw all of their country and then some; cruising the Panama Canal and flying to Europe.
She could soften a cold heart with her smile. This unyielding warmth was countered by the occasional emergence of a pursed lip and raised eyebrow that said your actions had been weighed and measured and you should consider yourself lucky to be alive.
She was fair down to the last penny. She laid this even hand across her entire family, from her two children to her granddaughters, nieces, nephews and great grandchildren.
She listened: to her employees to decipher what they needed to do their best; to her husband’s input on all decisions; to her children to ascertain their needs versus their wants; to her granddaughters to make them feel safe and loved. She taught them all to work hard, be discerning and to keep their word.
She is missed immeasurably.
Marie leaves behind her husband Orvil, her sisters Tresa Stagg, Martha (Richard) Watanabe and Betty (Paul) Landaker, her children, Bob (Michael) Simpson and Dorothy (David) Marrazzo as well as her granddaughters, nieces, nephews and great-grandchildren
