The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Dr. Elgin Eugene Sims, 96, passed away March 26, in Waco. Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m. Monday, March 30, at the Lost Prairie Baptist Church with the Rev. Clifton Jones officiating. There will be time provided in the service for people to share. Interment will follow in the Lost Prairie Cemetery.

Visitation with the family will be from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. Monday at the Lost Prairie Baptist Church.

Eugene and his twin sister, Christine, were born April 11, 1918, to H.H. and Lurah Easterling Sims, in the Lost Prairie Community of Limestone County, where they grew up.

He graduated from Donie High School and Sam Houston College in Huntsville with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agriculture. It was in Huntsville that he met his future wife, Lucille Blackwood. Sims served in the Army during World War II as a medical lab technician. He returned to Limestone County in 1947 and became involved in several businesses and then in school administration. He earned his PhD from Baylor University.

Sims worked for Texas A&M in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and in Tunisia. He served as superintendent of schools in Bridge City, where a school was named in his honor and in Cuero.

Sims and his wife, Lucille retired to the Mexia area in 1980 and, for the past several years, he had been living in Waco.

Preceding him in death were his wife, Lucille; infant daughter, Gayle and 11 brothers and sisters.

Sims is survived by three children: sons, Glennis Sims and his son, Sean; daughter, Keri and her husband, Emilio Garcia and their children, Ashlyn, Aiden, Austin and Addison; son, Gayland Sims and wife, Ann, their daughters, Megan, Corley and Frances and her husband, Jeremy Mohler and their son Mason; daughter, Kathy Neece and her husband, Dennis Myhand, their son, John Neece and his daughters, Madison, Morgan and Jillian, daughter, Luci and her husband, Dee Smith and their children, Trey, Sidney, Marcus and Nikki and her husband, Andrew Pope and their children Zachary and Avery; and sister, Wylene Bryant.

Pallbearers will be Bobby Reed, Benjie Reed, Stephen Reed, Justin Reed, Ronnie Maskew, Rhudy Maskew, Stephen Sims, Don Alan Sims, Kenneth Sims and Philip Sims.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Stillwell Assisted Living Center, St. Catherine’s Nursing Home or Seventh and James Baptist Church, all of Waco.

Visit blair-stubbs.com to leave the family a memorial message.