Lifelong Middleton resident James “Jumbo” Simon is being remembered by family and friends as a caring father and grandfather, talented athlete and dedicated coach. Simon died Tuesday at Agrace Hospice Care. He was 94.
Simon’s passing comes just one week after he and his family laid to rest the remains of his brother, Army Pfc. William L. “Sonny” Simon, who was killed in action fighting alongside his unit at a battle in the German Hürtgen Forest in 1944.
Simon’s son Pat, 69, said he’s grateful for the closure Sonny’s burial — which came nearly 80 years after his death in Germany — brought his father. He described his father as a hardworking man who was well-liked by all who knew him.
“Humble, I think, is the best word to describe him,” Pat Simon said Saturday. “You won’t find anybody who didn’t like him. He was just a nice guy.”
An obituary prepared by Gunderson Funeral and Cremation Care notes Simon “will be missed by so many and remembered in many different ways.”
“Whether it was a ‘Top of the morning’ to the people on his mail route, the friends he made up north, family gatherings with nieces and nephews, or playing euchre with his card playing buddies, he impacted so many,” the obituary states.
Simon was born in Middleton on March 13, 1929. He married Anna Mae Voss in April 1951, and the two were together for more than 70 years until Anna Mae died in early 2022.
In his younger years, Simon helped his parents, George and Margaret, run George Simon’s Tavern and Bowling Alleys, which is now The Village Green bar. Simon spent more than 40 years as a mail carrier and stayed busy after his retirement — spending more than 20 years working at Pleasant View Golf Course.
An accomplished athlete with a particular love for baseball, Simon earned 11 varsity letters at Middleton High School. He later attended UW-Eau Claire. Simon played with the Middleton Home Talent amateur baseball league from 1947 to 1963 and was a member of three league championship teams — in 1952, 1956 and 1957 — as well as multiple all-star teams.
“He was a player, coach, and proud fan of his grandchildren and their many achievements,” according to Simon’s obituary. “He could be found at any one of their activities, with Anna Mae next to him, giving her the play by play as her eyesight deteriorated.”
Simon is survived by children William, Pat, Jill, Jamie and Jenny, his sister Eileen Tesch, 14 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren and his many nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at St. Bernard Catholic Church, 7450 University Ave., Middleton on April 21. Friends and family can view the Mass online at www.gundersonfh.com. Simon will be laid to rest alongside his brother and parents at St. Bernard Catholic Cemetery.
Simon’s family asks that memorial donations in Simon’s name be made to Agrace Hospice Care and Middleton VFW William “Sonny” Simon Post 8216.
John Bechtol, commander of VFW Post 8216, said Saturday members of the post were sorry to hear of Simon’s passing.
“He has always been a friend and supporter of the post that bears his late brother’s name,” Bechtol said. “We are grateful that we had the opportunity to welcome Sonny home, and see him buried in his hometown prior to Jumbo’s passing. We appreciate it meant a lot to Jumbo and the rest of the extended Simon family.”
Sonny died in action in Germany when Simon was 15 years old.
“My mother did get a letter from a chaplain that said he’d seen a bomb explode nearby and (Sonny) was killed instantly,” Simon told the Wisconsin State Journal last December. “But we never heard anything else about it.”
Sonny’s remains were discovered and interred as unidentified in 1950 at the Ardennes American Cemetery. The remains were sent to the Defense/POW MIA Accounting Agency lab in 2019 for analysis and were later identified as Sonny’s.
___
(c) 2023 The Wisconsin State Journal
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
