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Funeral home:
Fricke-Calvert-Schrader, Lincoln
Obituary
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.
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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.
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