Last funeral held for victim of Charleston church shooting
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The last of the victims of the Charleston church shooting to be eulogized was remembered Thursday as a man who lived his life with a driving force to serve his fellow men and his God.
Family members, colleagues and friends packed the pews Thursday at the Bethel AME church in Columbia for the funeral of the 74-year-old Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr.
Simmons is the last of the nine victims of the June 17 shootings at the predominantly black Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church to be buried. They were shot at a Bible study Simmons regularly attended.
A white man, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, faces nine counts of murder in the slayings.
During the course of his career with the AME church, Simmons served at or was a minister at eight AME churches in the state, mourners said.
“This man never rested. He always worked. He always had work to do,” said state Sen. John Scott, DColumbia. “He had a driving force to take care of other people,” Scott said.
Many of those at the funeral were colleagues from Simmons’ days at Allen University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education administration. He earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and a master’s of divinity from the Lutheran Seminary in Columbia.
Simmons had worked as a counselor and teacher at the state’s Department of Corrections and as a counselor with the Veterans Administration in Columbia.
Simmons’ daughter, Rose Ann Simmons, of Chesapeake, Virginia, said that her father was a loving parent who treasured his family and one who’d risen above tough beginnings in rural South Carolina. “There were many hurdles in his life,” she said, but he worked hard to overcome them.
Her father remained a man of great religious faith, right up until his death, she said.
Simmons was attending a beloved Bible study on the night he was shot. In his last moments, she said, Simmons enjoyed “a strong finish. He fell at the feet of Jesus!”