There are condolences waiting approval on Mary's Tribute wall
Celebrating the life of Mary Alice Simmons
Be the first to share your favorite memory, photo or story of
Mary.
This memorial page is dedicated for family, friends and future generations to celebrate
the life of their loved one.
We ask on behalf of the family that you keep your comments uplifting and appropriate
to help all who come here to find comfort and healing.
Obituary for Mary Alice Simmons
Mary Alice Edwards was born in Richmond, California on August 10, 1943 to Berlie and Roe Bill Edwards. The youngest of eight children – Patricia, Blanche, Ruth, Wanda, Billy, Eleanor, and Virginia – she was the only Edwards child born in California. Like many of her siblings, she didn’t go by her first name and was known to her friends as Alice and to her sisters as Ali.
Though she was the youngest in the family, she was never alone as she had her imaginary friend she named Glutie with her at all times. For part of her childhood, she lived on Navellier Street in El Cerrito, California in a large home designed and built by her father with assistance from Alice and her siblings. As a child, she enjoyed exploring the hills behind her home and walking to an area called Big Rock with her sisters and brother, and her lifelong friend, Ione Moore.
In 1957, at a youth camp in Sonora, Alice met Lowell “Bud” Simmons. She was 14, he was 17. Not long after, Mr. Edwards traded homes with a friend and before she knew it, Alice was moving to Petaluma – nearly 35 miles away. Bud asked if he could visit her from time to time and the two began dating. They married in June 1960 when Alice was just two months shy of her 17th birthday. For her wedding she made her dress, she made her tiara from chicken wire and beading, and she baked and assembled a tiered wedding cake.
The couple relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska the following year where Bud was stationed in the Army and they both learned to cross-country ski. They moved back to the Bay Area in 1963 and in April 1964 they welcomed their first daughter, Shari Jane, followed by Rebecca DeAnn in 1966.
Alice moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1966 for her husband to attend Bible college but jobs in the area were scarce and they moved back to Petaluma soon after. In November 1968, she gave birth to her first son – Lowell “Bud” Ray, Jr. – Buddy Ray as she always called him.
Following her big sister Eleanor to Oregon, Alice and Bud moved their family to the rural town of Veneta in March 1971, where she picked out all the features of the custom home they had built in the country. In 1974, the family moved back to the Bay Area. Working as an Avon saleswoman, Alice would have Shari, Becky and Bud tag along as she went door to door in their Napa neighborhood. As she did through the decades, she also worked on antiques and lamps to supplement the family income.
Alice and her family moved from Napa to San Pablo in the mid-70s and in March 1976, she gave birth to her fourth child, Lora Elisabeth, and in May 1981 welcomed her youngest son, Philip Jason. She spent many hours painting, wallpapering, and decorating their fixer upper home on Madeline Road in Montalvin Manor. At this home she restored antiques, built lamps, and had garage sales with her sisters. She had a pump organ in this house for a time – once belonging to Henry Ford’s family – and played it often. She loved to play the piano and could be found there at all hours of the day and night.
The 1980s brought the marriage of her two oldest daughters and the birth of Alice’s first four grandchildren. She moved with her husband and two youngest children to Vacaville in December 1987, the last move she would make in her lifetime. This new house had plenty of space for her growing number of grandkids and her growing collection of antiques. Her garage and three sheds were full of lamp parts, table legs, dressers in need of repair and picture frames. Alice loved to work with her hands.
She kept the front and backyards of her Vacaville house immaculate, always adding new plants and changing out tables and chairs to accommodate a growing family. The next two decades brought the marriages of both of her sons and more grandchildren and great grandchildren.
In 2005, Alice and Bud traveled across the US to visit cousins in Florida, attend an Edward’s family reunion in Tennessee, and see friends along the way. This was a trip of a lifetime and one she would talk about often. Especially her stop off at Paula Deen’s restaurant where she had her picture taken with two random guys who she later found out were Paula’s sons. God blessed Alice with a marriage of 53 years, five children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Throughout the years, He graciously watched over her life, saving her from cancer twice and healing her body from multiple surgeries. After several years of failing health, Alice passed away on July 2, 2021, at her cherished home in Vacaville. She was 77. Alice is survived by her daughters, Shari Schoenecker of Vacaville, Rebecca (Phillip) Foley, and Lora Simmons both of Vallejo; and her sons Bud (Monica) Simmons of Vallejo and Philip (Katie) Simmons of Rohnert Park; 16 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren; sisters Eleanor Wilson and Virginia Bryant and many beloved nieces and nephews.
