Obituary: Audrey Simpson

This week, the arboretum lost a donor. Audrey Simpson passed away in northern Caddo Parish, at the age of 96. In the mid to late 1990s, she and her husband, Jimmy Simpson, donated several plants to the arboretum catalogue, all of which are still thriving today. Let's take a moment to remember Audrey Simpson, and her husband Jimmy, for their long lives and their contributions to the arboretum.

Jimmy Simpson, pictured here in his pilot's uniform during World War II, passed away in 2001 at the age of 84.

Audrey Simpson is pictured here, at her home in Gilliam, just a few years ago.

Mr. Simpson was from Mississippi, while Mrs. Simpson was born in Colfax, Louisiana. They met and married in Mississippi in the late 1940s. Mr. Simpson was a USAF pilot in the Philipines during the Second World War and put those skills to use in Caddo Parish. For decades he operated a crop-dusting service, owning a hangar near Gilliam and multiple airplanes. He and his wife were prolific hunters and outdoorspeople, traveling to Mexico, Canada, and across the United States. Over the years, their property off Highway 71 became host to a large variety of native and non-native plants.

 

Dr. Ed Leuck explained that the Simpsons would collect irises from across the state of Louisiana, planting them on their property in Gilliam.

 

Through his friendship with Jack Price, Dr. Ed Leuck came to know the Simpsons. Due to a joint interest in plants and visits to the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve, Audrey Simpson had a collection of Louisiana irises in a variety of colors. In late 1995, Dr. Leuck collected some of these for the arboretum, where they have multiplied and been enjoyed by countless visitors, students, and employees of Centenary College. 

Our best Mexican plum trees also come from the Simpson property in Gilliam. In 1996, Jack Price collected three seedlings and Dr. Ed Leuck was responsible for planting them in the ground of the arboretum. How many generations of birds, squirrels, possums and bugs have benefited from that joint endeavour?

 

The aboretum's bitter pecans come from the Simpson property as well. Here, the four bitter pecans, fused together, are pictured in the green splendour of summer. Today, if you look for them in the arboretum, they are dropping their brilliant yellow autumnal foliage.