Simmons family has proud legacy at Fort Valley State

When Phyllis Simmons Worthen was a student at Fort Valley State in the 1960s, she had a flashback moment one day as she walked through the campus.

“It was déjà vu,’’ she said. “It just came to me. I looked up and said, ‘I’ve been here before.’ ’’ 

Of course, she had been there many times. But this was different. Her memory raced back to when she was a small child.

“My father later told me that I had been there,’’ she said. “When I was 2 years old, he took me and sat me down on that bench in front of the library.’’

In a sense, part of her has always been at Fort Valley State. She is tethered to its past, present and future.

Her father, Horace Simmons Jr., was the first in his family to graduate from college when he got his undergraduate degree there. When he died in December 2000, he left a legacy of higher education in his family across four generations.

There have been 35 members of the Simmons family who have attended Fort Valley State. Almost one-third of them became teachers, and 10 of those have taught in Bibb County schools.

Worthen is among those educators. In August 1969, she became one of the first black teachers hired in Macon’s public schools following integration. She taught first grade at Bruce Elementary on Houston Avenue before being transferred across town to Pearl Stephens Elementary, where she spent 35 years in the classroom.

Even though the iconic school on Napier Avenue is now a senior living facility, she is proud that “my picture is still on the wall over there,’’ she said. 

Two members of the Simmons family tree are now students at Fort Valley – freshman Amonte Harden and junior Jaylyn Wright. 

The large number of graduates the Simmons family has produced on commencement day was acknowledged this past September at the funeral of Worthen’s cousin – John Henry Simmons Jr.  He was a beloved figure on campus, and his services were held at the C.W. Pettigrew Center Auditorium, where everyone was encouraged to wear Wildcat blue.

“We all went, and it was an emotional day,’’ Worthen said. “John Henry ran the farm down there, and he and brother, Ralph, would take vegetables to senior citizen centers in Perry and Warner Robins.’’

It was her father’s love of the land that inspired him to attend Fort Valley State College after he returned home after serving in the Army during World War II. 

He was valedictorian of his high school class at Hubbard in Monroe County and salutatorian in college at Fort Valley, where he was an agriculture major.

He got his master’s degree from Tuskegee Institute, where he finished third in his class. 

He never stopped learning, either. He was pursuing his doctorate at the University of Georgia when he died at the age of 81.

But it was Fort Valley that had a stronghold on her father’s heart.

“Back in those days, land grant colleges could have farms,’’ Worthen said. “They planted butter beans, corn and squash and picked them for the school cafeteria.’’

Simmons later worked on the family farm on Lower Simmons Road off Highway 74 near the Bibb-Monroe County line and another farm in Lizella that had been in his wife’s family. 

They grew fruits and vegetables and would sell them at the old farmer’s market when it was located downtown.

He often took his seven daughters with him to the market.

“When someone would ask for some peas that were already shelled, he would tell them he had these little pea shellers over here,’’ she said, laughing.

He also taught his “little pea shellers’’ the value of an education. 

Six of his seven daughters – Phyllis, Gwen, Sophia, Katie, Bobbie Jean and Rita – received their college degrees. (The youngest daughter, Tina, was born with Down syndrome.)

“He made a lot of sacrifices to send us to college,’’ Worthen said. “He worked extra jobs.’’

In addition to his farming, Simmons was a principal and an educator in Monroe County.

“Daddy walked Fort Valley and talked Fort Valley,’’ Worthen said. “When he retired, he would still sneak down there to work.  

He told me it helped him so that he could help me. That’s why Fort Valley means everything to me.’’