CAMILLE DOCKERY SIMPSON

10/20/1926 - 03/04/2023

In the wee hours of Saturday, March 4, 2023, Camille Dockery Simpson passed peacefully into glory, just as she had hoped she would – asleep in her own bed.

Mom often said that she just wanted to “wake up dead”.

She was 96 years old.

Camille was born on October 20, 1926 to John Moorehead Dockery and Camille Coates Dockery in Waco, TX where her father managed the family owned Raleigh Hotel. When the Depression hit, they lost the property, so Mr. Dockery began a new career in management with the startup Greyhound Bus Lines, eventually bringing the family of four, including Camille’s younger sister Diane, to Houston.

Camille grew up in Houston, attending Woodrow Wilson Elementary, Sidney Lanier Jr. High and Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, class of 1943. She then attended the Rice Institute and graduated in the accelerated wartime class of 1946.

When asked what she majored in at Rice, she would always say, “Boys”. But she actually majored in Chemistry, once accidentally causing an explosion in the lab. Her knowledge of the field came in handy in her post graduate job as a secretary at Shell Oil Company on Bellaire Blvd. There were no lab jobs for women then, as the veterans of WWII had returned to the work force.

She was gorgeous, always included in the “Most Beautiful” section of Rice’s Campanile yearbook. And when her fellow classmate Mary Simpson introduced Camille to her handsome Navy Officer brother Ray, who had returned post war to Rice to earn his Masters in Chemical Engineering degree, Mom soon earned her MRS degree.

Raymond Ellsworth Simpson, Jr. and Camille were married on October 8, 1948 at Bethany Christian Church (because St. Luke’s Methodist Church was still meeting in the Lamar auditorium). They settled into a two bedroom, one bath starter home on Beech St. in Bellaire, a treeless plain back then, from what the old photos show.

Their firstborn, Ray, III was born in 1950, quickly followed by daughter Kathryn in 1951. At this point, Dad got “transferred” to Katy to live in company housing at the Esso gas plant. They worshipped at First Methodist Katy, before moving back to Houston and St. Luke’s.

When daughter Camille came along in 1953, they were still living in that small house on Beech St. Soon they moved to an expansive house (compared to Beech St!) on Drake St. in Sunset Terrace, which had an enormous back yard that went all the way to Bissonnet St. Daughter Carol was born in 1955 and was only two years old when Dad got transferred again, this time to New Orleans.

Mom would say that the New Orleans years were one of the happiest times of her life. We lived out on the lakefront on Stilt St. in Lake Vista, an idyllic community which was full of children with whom we all ran wild. We rode bikes everywhere or took the bus. Our parents trusted us to do the right thing.

We fished in the bayou, played sandlot baseball and swam at the Vista Shores Country Club. Mom made some of her best friends there that lasted her lifetime.

The family continued to grow, with daughter Mary coming along in 1958 and finally, brother John in 1961 (he weighed 12.5 pounds at birth, a hospital record!).

The Simpsons attended Lake Vista Methodist Church where Mom had a hand in just about every aspect of administration, particularly in the Library and Adult Education Ministry. Of course, she was also a Girl Scout leader, a Sunday School teacher and a volunteer extraordinaire at all the schools her six children attended.

Let’s not forget that she also sewed most of her kids’ clothes and nurtured a colorful garden of azaleas, camellias, amaryllis and spirea. Somehow, in her spare time, Mom managed to earn a Masters degree in Education at the University of New Orleans. We’re not sure where she found any spare time while raising six busy children who took piano and ballet lessons, played sports, needed emergency trips to the doctor for stitches (or a raisin up a nose!). We kids also adopted all sorts of interesting creatures, including chickens (John’s FFA project) on the 3rd floor of South

Blvd, unbeknownst to her! Here’s to all the dogs, cats, fish, birds, hamsters, rabbits, mice, turtles, a lamb in the dog yard, two steer in the feed lot (also FFA) and Cindy the horse.

How she did all that, we’ll never know. None of us ever felt neglected.

She created a history of our childhood years with carbon copies of letters she had typed home to Houston family and friends. They were sort of an old fashioned “blog”; she did that so she could remember what news she had sent to whom. We didn’t know about them until the early 2000’s. What a marvelous gift they are!

Dad got transferred back to Houston in 1968, where Mom jumped right into volunteering and teaching in the Cy Fair School District, using her newly earned Masters degree. She taught Adult Sunday School classes at St. Luke’s, specializing in putting history within the framework of Biblical stories to give an overall context to them.

Mom developed an interest in genealogy and traced her heritage back to the early days of our country and the great state of Texas. She was a proud member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She and Dad hosted five wedding receptions at their home on South Blvd, as one by one, their kids married. She sewed two of our wedding dresses and all the bridesmaids’ dresses for three of those weddings!

Once her kids left the nest, she enjoyed traveling with Dad and having fun with her many friends, particularly “The Bridge Club”, friends from high school/college days who met faithfully every other Tuesday and enjoyed going on outings together.

But the best part of her life in the 70’s- 00’s were the grandchildren! All have fond and funny memories of spending time at “Baba’s” house, or taking road trips in her enormous station wagon that had zero pick up. She was a fun grandmother who took the kids to places like the Children’s Museum or the Briar Club, but also exposed them to educational experiences. And funny food! They all laugh at their memories of Baba.

In the early 2000’s, many of Mom’s Bridge Club friends decided to purchase apartments together in the Independent wing of the new Buckingham Retirement community. She never even consulted us! It turned out to be a blessing, as Dad had declined with Alzheimer’s, and later as Mom gradually needed help herself. We are grateful to the staff in the Skilled Nursing wing there, who were so caring and kind to our mom.

Resourceful, energetic, creative, smart, fun, loving, generous, capable, pretty, organized, strong, fearless, disciplined, effervescent, reverent, faithful, determined… these are just some of the words that come to mind when we think of Mom from the vantage point of our childhood years. She had a servant heart and was a role model whose legacy lives on through her children and grandchildren.

Of huge importance is the fact that all her children love being with one another, with no envy nor squabbling. She was happiest about this fact more than just about anything else. Her most frequent statement in her latter days was, “I am the luckiest person in the world!” How blessed we were to be raised up by this remarkable lady. Godspeed Mom!

Camille was predeceased by her parents, husband Ray, sister, sisters and brothers in law, son Ray III and numerous extended family and friends.

She is survived by daughters Kathryn Vidal (Robert), Camille Fitzsimmons, Carol Mohrman (Joel), Mary Axelrad, and son John Simpson (Martha). GrandchildrenCamille Vidal Boon (John), Jacques Vidal (Meredith James), Megan Fitzsimmons, Catherine Fitzsimmons, Shannon Mohrman (Kat Statman), Maurice Tourenq, Gary Simpson and Byron Simpson. Great grandchildrenErnest Boon, Elijah Boon, Louis James Vidal and Waleska James Vidal.

A Memorial Service will be held on Monday, April 3 at 2:00 pm in the Sanctuary of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer, officiated by Dr. Tom Pace. A reception will follow in the Hines Baker Room. A private interment in the St. Luke’s Memory Garden will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a memorial gift in Camille’s memory to the Friends of Music fund at St. Luke’s UMC, PO Box 22013, Houston, TX 77227 or to the Ray and Camille Simpson Fellowship at Rice University at the Office of Development MS-81, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251, or at giving.rice.edu