NORFOLK, Va. — Kathleen Owens Simmons wore a sparkly tiara that matched her teardrop earrings to her birthday party in Norfolk Thursday. "100 & fabulous," her pink-and-gold sash read.
Born in Suffolk on June 12, 1925, Kathleen Simmons had to pay 50 cents a week to ride the school bus.
She attended school in the Suffolk Public Schools district, which was segregated at the time and did not provide public transportation for her. Instead, members of the African-American community in the area purchased a worn-down bus, dubbed the "Ol' Grey Goose," to transport students to and from school.
Kathleen Simmons worked in a greeting card factory in Brooklyn after high school before meeting her husband, military policeman Opel Simmons, in Newport News. They were married in 1946 and had five children, later adopting another. Kathleen Simmons held down the fort while her husband was deployed to Korea during and after the Korean War.
After Opel Simmons retired from the U.S. Army in 1963, the Simmons family relocated to Portsmouth and joined New Bethel Baptist Church. There, Kathleen Simmons served as an usher and a member of the senior choir and was eventually ordained a deaconess.
She worked as an instructor at the General Electric Company's Suffolk manufacturing plant for 15 years and later as a supply packer at the Norfolk Naval Supply Center before retiring in 1987.
Kathleen Simmons was active at various churches and senior groups in the Hampton Roads area, and is still a deaconess at St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church. She is a grandmother to 13 and a great-grandmother to 16, and now lives in a senior living home in Norfolk, where her 100th birthday was celebrated.
