Aline Simpson

Aline Simpson, a long-time preschool teacher in Stone Mountain and Decatur, died Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, at Hospice Atlanta Center. She was 60.

She had been diagnosed with ALS in October 2017.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at A. S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home, 2773 North Decatur Road, Decatur. The family will receive visitors beginning at noon.

Ms. Simpson usually taught 3- and 4-year olds. For many years, she taught the “Butterflies” class at St. Timothy United Methodist Church Preschool in Stone Mountain. She taught most recently at Preschool at The Heights in Decatur.

She also had long relationships with several families she served as a day care or after-school care provider.

For more than 30 years, she was a member of Presbyterian Women Circle 5 of Lithonia Presbyterian Church, later Presbyterian Church of the Resurrection in Conyers.

She was born Elizabeth Aline Johnson in the Panama Canal Zone on Sept. 28, 1958. Her father’s Army service meant she grew up in Germany, Kansas, California and Tennessee before her family settled in Huntsville, Alabama. She graduated from Butler High School in Huntsville and attended the University of Montevallo.

She and her husband, David Simpson, lived in Tuscaloosa and Selma, Alabama, before settling in DeKalb County, Georgia, in 1982.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by three children, Kate Gardes, Alan Simpson and Carter Simpson; a son-in-law, Brendan Gardes; two daughters-in-law, Shannon Simpson and Ashleigh Simpson; five grandchildren, Genevieve and Lilah Gardes, Lane and Oney Norris and David Simpson; her father, Douglas Johnson; two sisters, JoCasta Farmer and Tammy Johnson; a step-sister, Jan Marsh; two step-brothers, Joey and Scott Fleming; and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, gifts in her memory may be made to the ALS Association Georgia Chapter (webga.alsa.org) or Hospice Atlanta Center (vnhs.org).