Mary E. (O'Neill) Simmons

Coventry, CT/Monson, MA-On Wednesday, April 29, 2020 Mary E Simmons, loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend, passed away at the age of 92.

Mary was born to Edna and Clarence O’Neill in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  She graduated from St. Elizabeth’s School of Nursing in Boston as a Registered Nurse in 1948. She married Robert B. Simmons on February 4, 1950 and together, they raised six children in Coventry, Connecticut.

She worked as a nurse in South Bend, Indiana, Manchester, CT and as a school nurse at Coventry Grammar School (after her children left the nest).  Mary enjoyed reading, sewing and attending plays. She was an  active community volunteer, dedicating many of her hours to St. Maurice Church.  She played golf as long as she could and took up bowling when she couldn’t.  Her husband Bob and she purchased a very charming cottage on a remote lake in E. Haddam, Ct. , which she continued  to enjoy and keep up to the best of her ability.

In 1986, she nursed her beloved husband, until his early death from cancer.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her sisters, Anne and Kathleen.

She is survived by her six children and their spouses, Ann (Tom) Muzio, M. Ellen Simmons (Len Buckley), Joan Simmons (Davis Johnson), R. Steven (Ann) Simmons, Joyce (Ron) Marks and William Simmons (Jill Kruzinski) and nine grandchildren; and by her brothers, James, Paul, Joe and Brian O’Neill, a slew of nieces and nephews and hordes of friends.

We will all miss her terribly.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society.