Kenneth Poe Funeral Services

June 3, 2026

CHARLOTTE – Mrs. Simpson, 98, died on June 3, 2026, at The Sharon at South Park. A memorial service will be held at Covenant Presbyterian Church at 2:00 PM on Monday, June 22, 2026, with the Rev. Mary Kate Sykes officiating. Interment will be in the Covenant Church Columbarium. The family will receive friends following the service in the parlor.

Mrs. Simpson was born January 14, 1928, in Charlotte, the only child of the late Leary Warren Adams and Will O’Mae Gettys Adams, both of whom were Charlotte newspaper writers. She was a direct descendant of Colonial settlers in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. A resident of Charlotte most of her life, she moved to Davidson in 2004.

She was a graduate of Central High School, where she wrote her first newspaper articles, as the school’s correspondent for The Charlotte News. She served as editor of the school paper, The Rambler, and she was president of the 1945 summer graduating class. She attended Agnes Scott College for two years and was a 1949 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she wrote for The Daily Tar Heel, edited the Women’s Handbook, and worked for the UNC News Bureau. She was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the Order of the Old Well, and the Order of the Valkyries.

Mrs. Simpson was a former reporter on both The Charlotte Observer and The Charlotte News, the city’s two daily newspapers. She also served as a copy editor and in other newsroom positions. She was the Director of Alumnae Affairs at Queens College for four years, and for 15 years, from 1973 until her retirement in 1988, she was the Mecklenburg County Director of Public Service and Information. The recipient of more than 25 national awards, including five consecutive National Association of Counties (NACO) Achievement Awards, she developed a number of new information services for county government. An advocate for open government, she had in the past led regional and national seminars and workshops dealing with relationships between government officials and the news media. She was President of the National Association of County Information Officers (NACIO), 1982-83, and she served two terms on the NACO Board of Directors. At the time of her retirement, she was honored with lifetime achievement awards from NACIO and Women in Communications of Charlotte.

A charter member and elder emerita of Covenant Church, she was active in the ministry of the church and in a number of community organizations. In past years she had served as president of the Charlotte Agnes Scott Alumnae Chapter and as a member of the board of directors of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Friendship Trays, the Charlotte Public Releations Society, and the Red Cross of Arlington VA. In the early 1950s when she and her husband lived in the Washinton area, she developed and led tours for elementary schools children through the National Gallery of Art. She was a member of the D.A.R., and for a number of years she served as a volunteer at Presbyterian Hospital and as an active member of the Mint Museum Auxiliary. Her interest in Southern history led to extensive genealogical research on her own family lines as well as those of her husband.

Mrs. Simpson is survived by her son, the Rev. Joseph Bradford Simpson IV, Gastonia, NC; and John Avery Simpson and his wife Patricia, Ft. Mill, SC; and two grandchildren, Conrad Beam Bookout III and his wife Ashley and Alison Marie Walsh, all of Charlotte; and great grandchildren Conrad Beam Bookout IV and Cynthia Frances Bookout. She was predeceased by her daughter Cynthia Simpson Young and by Joseph Bradford Simpson, Jr., whom she married in 1951. Her survivors also include sister-in-law Margaret Inman Simpson of Asheville, NC, and several cousins, nieces and nephews.

Memorial gifts may be made to The Sharon at South Park Resident Assistance Fund, 5100 Sharon Road, Charlotte, NC 28210 or to Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, NC 28204.

Arrangements are in the care of Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service, 1321 Berkeley Ave., Charlotte, NC 28204; (704) 641-7606. Online condolences may be shared at www.kennethpoeservices.com.