Laurene M. Simons

Laurene M. Simons (nee: Ives), age 80, of Warsaw, IN, passed away peacefully on November 13, 2025, after a brief but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. 

She was the beloved wife of 57 years of Charles, loving mother of Teresa, and grandmother of Emma. Laurene was preceded in death by cherished family; mother, Lucy Ives, and sister Fran (JB /Jim) Fowler.

Born in Nevada City, CA, Laurene was a member of the Camp Fire Girls and Job’s Daughters as a child. Laurene attended beauty school, ultimately winning many competitions and holding cosmetologist licenses in multiple states. Laurene moved with her family many times throughout her life including time in Northern California, Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio, before ultimately returning to Indiana where she lived on a lake with her husband Chuck.

Her greatest joy in life was being married to Chuck. They were partners and friends. She was a wonderful mother and an even more amazing grandmother: “Gami”. She was immensely proud of Emma in all she did.

Laurene made the family home vibrant and welcoming. It was a safe haven for all, full of laughter, music, advice if you asked, and the smell of home cooked meals, and garden vegetables. She saw herself as quiet and shy but she had a personality that filled the room. Throughout her daughter’s life she was everyone’s second mom, hosting sleepovers, cheering at volleyball and softball games, and building gingerbread houses every Christmas.

Better known as “Gami” to many, Laurene loved owls and the color purple, and was often found with purple hair. Laurene loved playing cribbage and solitaire, 1000-piece puzzles with family, attending plays and musicals at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts, and going to every volleyball game, concert, and ceremony of Emma’s.

On July 16, 2026, Laurene was laid to rest at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family encouraged donations to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research in her honor: https://events.lustgarten.org/gami