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MARGUERITE MCKOY. Services for Marguerite Cecelia Simonds, 94, of Oklahoma City, OK, formerly of Stonewall, OK and Albuquerque, NM, will be 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, 2005, at the Criswell Chapel in Ada, OK, with Rev. Bob Langston officiating. Burial follows at Highland Cemetery in Stonewall. Mrs. Simonds died Friday, March 11, 2005, at Oklahoma City. She was born February 5, 1911, in Stonewall, OK, to John Hershel McKoy and Cecelia Burris McKoy. Her grandfather, Colbert Ashalotubby Burris, was a Methodist preacher and full-blood Chickasaw Indian. After graduating from Stonewall High School, she received her Bachelor of Arts and Science degrees from East Central Teachers College in Ada, and then obtained her master's degree from the University of Oklahoma. Mrs. Simonds started her teaching career when she was 19, teaching both elementary and high school in Stonewall. She married Isaac E. Simonds in April 1932, and the couple moved to Bowlegs, where for the next four years she was the principal of Allen School at Bowlegs and worked with the Seminole Indian children. Later she was re-assigned as a third grade teacher at Taylor School where her husband was principal. They later moved to Clovis, NM, where she was an elementary school teacher and was assigned to train student teachers from the University of New Mexico and St. Joseph's College. In 1941, her husband joined the Army Air Corps, and they moved to Fort Bliss, TX. After several re-assignments, they moved to Dodge City, KS. where she worked at the air base. After military service, they moved to Albuquerque, NM, which became their permanent home. She retired from the Albuquerque school system. She later moved to Oklahoma City and was resident of Epworth Villa. Mrs. Simonds served as president of the Albuquerque Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority and helped sponsor the organization of the Beta Chapter. At the University of Oklahoma, she was a member of Kappa Delta Pi, an honorary art fraternity. At East Central Teachers College, she was a member of Pi Kappa Sigma, a sorority which later became Chi Omega sorority to which she was initiated at the age of 83. Her hobbies included painting, writing, bird watching, and sewing. Mrs. Simonds was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Isaac Simonds in 1979; two brothers, George Colbert McKoy and John McKoy; and one sister, Lanelle Bassett. Survivors include one sister, Laura Heatley and her husband, Robert, of Oklahoma City; three nephews, Edward Allen, Stonewall, Gerald R. Allen, Enid, and John Raybourn Allen, Russellville, AR; one niece, Cecelia Gosting, Dallas, TX; and several grand-nieces and -nephews.
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