CPL Jack Robinson Simms

CPL Jack Robinson Simms was born on 4 Nov 1915 in Wythe County, Virginia. He was the 8th of 11 children of Conner Foster and Minnie Alice (Kitts) Simms.The family lived at Fort Chiswell, Virginia and Jack's father worked in a mine. Conner died at age 43 in November 1922 of stomach cancer. His mother, Minnie, had a stroke in March 1929 and died at the age of 44. Jack and his siblings were sent to live with various relatives. Jack was living with Uncle Emory and Aunt Betty Waddle, undoubtedly helping his uncle farm. By the time he was 20 he had moved to Roanoke, Virginia and it was there that he met Francis Geraldine Woods. The couple was married in Fincastle, Virginia on 26 Jan 1937. They lived at 1404 Renwood Boulevard in Roanoke, Virginia where Jack worked in a furniture factory and augmented his income by joining the National Guard, enlisting in D Company 116th Infantry rising to the rank of CPL.

CPL Simms as federalized with D Company and the rest of the 116th Infantry on 3 Feb 1941. The unit was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland. The unit would train there and near Fort Bragg, North Carolina in the Carolina maneuvers before going to Camp Blanding, Florida and then to England in September 1942. Training continued in England with much of the effort being given to preparation for the amphibious landing planned as part of the effort to liberate occupied France. It was in that effort that CPL Simms was killed in action on 6 Jun 1944.

CPL Simms was repatriated in 1949 and re-interred in the Sherwood Burial Park in Salem, Virginia.

Younger brother, William Grant Simms, was also a member of D Company 116th Infantry in the National Guard from 1939 and when it was federalized on 3 Feb 1941 but was reassigned and not a member of the unit during the time it spent in combat in Europe. He would end the war as a 1LT. His son Jack Ronald Simms served as a seaman in the U.S. Navy. Maternal grandfather, Andrew Jackson Kitts, served as a PVT in F Company 8th Virginia Cavalry and 45th Virginia Infantry in the Civil War.