Jacqueline Marguerite Simpson Obituary (1927

Jacqueline Marguerite Simpson (nee Moriearty) slipped the bonds of this earth on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in Lincoln, Illinois, where she was born 98 years before on June 28, 1927. To have known Jackie was to recognize one was in the presence of an extraordinary woman whose indwelling compassion and emotional wisdom were freely shared with every person in her sphere. To have been part of her life was to know, without doubt or hesitation, that one had been seen, heard, and loved completely. Jackie was the fourth of 11 children born to a dynamic Irish American family that valued loyalty, humor, and intellectual and creative expression. Above all else, each member of the Moriearty clan looked out for one another. The many privations wrought of the Depression inspired a familial closeness that endured through the rhythms of their diverse lives. Her siblings were Jackie’s best friends and, by extension, so were their children and grandchildren. Upon her marriage to Harold Simpson on September 21, 1946, she opened her arms to his two brothers and four sisters as well, thus further expanding her already sizeable circle. The large bulletin board that hung in her kitchen was a repository for the happenings of each of these seventeen families. The thousands of pictures, cards, and ephemera displayed there over the years showcased the generations of people she held close in positive thought and support. Despite working full-time until her late 70’s, Jackie prioritized creative pursuits that captured the beauty present around her and Harold’s home in Angel Valley. She had an artist’s soul with a flair for casually arranging vases of wild flowers that appeared to have sprung from a Monet canvas. She was a water color painter, prodigious Haiku composer, a dabbler at the Irish harp. If a person came to her with a burden hanging on his or her heart, she would often ask if they were doing anything creative, because she understood artistic expression was a pathway to greater emotional awareness and well-being. Jackie was a sender of fat envelopes full of carefully curated clippings she thought the receiver might find interesting. She had a deep respect for the history of her family and was a wellspring of countless stories and anecdotes which animated our understanding of many beloved ancestors long since gone. She would cook Hopping John every New Year’s Day because it brought good fortune for the coming year. Jackie’s gentleness belied a straightness of moral character that didn’t yield to fashion or pressure. She was unquestioningly fair and compassionately honest and she could be counted on to do what was just at every turn. She was upright but never heavy-handed and she leavened her many observations of the world with liberal doses of humor that were both trenchant and perfectly aimed at their intended targets. When her beloved husband Harold passed away in 2002, she spoke of her grief in a manner wholly reflective of her faith and abiding belief in Divine Order. She said, ‘How can I be sad for someone who just took the greatest journey of his life?” And so it is now for us to do for her as well. Jackie was preceded in death by her husband Harold Simpson, son Kerry Shawn Simpson, great grandsons Reid and Nolan Johnson, her parents, James and Lucile Moriearty, sisters Patricia (Dick) Kelm, Suzanne (Owen) Westerfield, Carolyn (Ray) Wallinger, Marjorie (Jack) Poffenbarger, and Stephanie Moriearty, brothers James (Frances) Moriearty, John (Betty) Moriearty, Norman (Darlene) Moriearty, and David Moriearty, sister-in-law Jerri Moriearty, brothers in law Rosco (Gladys and Doris) Simpson, Burnell (Joyce) Simpson, sisters in law Betty (Jim) Cremeens, Kathleen (John) Wertz, Mary (Bill) Koehler, and Anna (Richard) McMullen. She is survived by her daughter Tanya Gay (David) Boward, granddaughter Shelley (Geoff) Cooker, grandson Stephen Simpson, granddaughter Kara (Jess) Burge, grandson Chris (Julie) Culleton, and great grandchildren Riley Johnson, Lucy (Josh) Elliot, Erik Burge, Nathan Burge, Cora Harper, Ian Culleton, Rory Culleton, great-great grandson Onxy Harper, brother Michael Moriearty, and numerous nieces and nephews. Memorial gifts may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Salvation Army. Cremation arrangements have been entrusted to Fricke-Calvert-Schrader Funeral Home in Lincoln.