Tommy Gray Simmons

Tommy Gray Simmons, a Surry County native, certified internal auditor and accountant, civil war antiquities buff, avid gardener, and unyielding lover of sweets, passed away suddenly on Sunday, February 9, 2025 while receiving treatment at Atrium Health Union in Monroe, NC. He was 74 years old.

Tommy, the eighth of nine children born to Lissie Harold Simmons and James Monroe Simmons, was born on January 27, 1951. He grew up working the family tobacco farm just outside of Pilot Mountain, NC—an experience which instilled in him a deep work ethic and an abiding respect for hard work, both of which he took with him throughout life. As a child, even given the long hours entailed in harvesting tobacco and developing a work ethic, Tommy loved hardly anyone more than his Mother, Lissie. His older sisters still regale his children with stories of their baby brother at their mother’s feet and skirttails as she made rice pudding and homemade biscuits and other sweet treats during their childhood. With this work ethic and the love of his mother, Tommy became the first of his family to attend college, garnering a scholarship to Western Carolina University. In Cullowhee, NC, he studied Business Administration and Accounting and met his wife, Katherine Elizabeth Wilkie. Married in 1974, Tommy and Katie moved to South Carolina. In 1978, Tommy’s childhood work ethic propelled him into a career in auditing and accounting in Lancaster, SC, working first for The Springs Company and later for Springs Industries, the latter with which he spent the remainder of his career. As a stickler for detail and one who relished figuring out financial puzzles, auditing was the sector in which he felt most at home and hit his professional stride. Indeed, during one project, he uncovered a mistake that saved the company over a million dollars.

As a father, Tommy worked to entrust the same commitment to family and hard work he developed as a child to his family and children. As a young newlywed, he drove school buses filled with his wife’s band students to band competitions across South Carolina. As a young father home alone with his son, James, when a fire broke out near Christmas of 1989, Tommy raced to get his son out of the house to the safety of a neighbor’s home, only to return inside his family’s burning abode twice to retrieve two solid oak end tables filled with family photos and memorabilia as well as a third time to save the family dog, Maggie. During his more seasoned years as a father, when his son was facing a difficult chemistry exam at Davidson College, Tommy took the time to speak at length on the phone with James, encouraging him to keep working hard and to perform at his best—no matter what that looked like in the situation. 

During retirement, Tommy was able to return, in a certain fashion, to his roots while pursuing new interests. Ever the American Civil War history enthusiast, he traveled to civil war battlefields, collected civil war antiquities, and read civil war histories. Simultaneously, he grew a garden filled with his favorite food: tomatoes. Tommy toe tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and heirloom varietals surrounded a plethora of purple and green basil, cucumbers, bell peppers, thyme, lavender, and chamomile. Always working in the yard during his earlier retirement years, family friends commented “Tommy, you’ve got this yard looking like a golf course.” Indeed, it did. Even during the latter stages of life when he was not able to work as strenuously out of doors, he still grew a collection of plants in the back bay window, often nursing sick plants back to life. Always wanting to share his love of fresh food and plants as recently as this past summer and fall, he could often be found taking baskets of farm-fresh tomatoes to his neighbors. 

Not the most loquacious of communicators, Tommy never forgot the value of hard work and often kept his most private and tender sentiments close to his vest. After his passing, Tommy’s son found toy cars and trucks stowed away—intended gifts for his only grandson. 

His survivors include: his daughter, Elizabeth Gray Simmons, of Forest City, NC; his son and daughter-in-law, James Austin Simmons and Yichen Liu; his grandson, Austin Max Liu Simmons all of Westwood, MA; four sisters, Julia Simmons (Gray) Peele, Ruth Simmons Chilton, Brenda Simmons (Dwight) Atkins, and Kaye Simmons (Sonny) Love; one brother, Jimmy (Bud) Ray (Barbara) Simmons; and several nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, Tommy was preceded in death by his wife of fifty years, Katherine Wilkie Simmons; his sister, Betty Simmons McHone; and two brothers, Joe Dean Simmons and Roy Lee Simmons. 

Always wanting to return to his beloved North Carolina mountains, a memorial service celebrating his life will be held at 2 o’clock on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at Moody Funeral Home in Mt. Airy, NC with the Reverend Blake Bowman officiating. Burial will follow in Skyline Memorial Gardens, giving him the mountain top view of which he always dreamed. The family will receive family and friends on Saturday, February 22, 2025 from 6 o’clock to 8 o’clock in the evening at Moody Funeral Home in Mt. Airy, NC. Moody Funeral Services in Mt. Airy, NC has been entrusted with Mr. Simmons’ arrangements.