Roscoe Conkling Murray Simmons (1881-1951), son of Emory Simmons, principal of a black high school in Hollandale, Mississippi and Willie Murray, was reportedly born June 20, 1881 in Greenview but raised in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He was also the nephew of Margaret Murray Washington, wife of Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute. He was educated in the Mississippi school system and attended Tuskegee Institute and graduated from there in 1899. During his life, Simmons worked as an office boy for Ohio Senator Mark Hanna, and after college graduation, he worked as a reporter for the Pensacola Daily News and later the Washington, D.C. Record. He also taught school in Holly Springs Mississippi.

Roscoe Simmons also worked as a journalist for the Demonstrator, the Age, and the Colored American Magazine. Simmons also worked for the Chicago Tribune, where he wrote the column the "Untold Story" for nine years. He was also columnist and promoter for the Chicago Defender where he wrote the column "The Week." He was a great orator, active in Republican politics, said to be friends to three presidents (Harding, Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt) and an authority on Abraham Lincoln. Roscoe Conkling Simmons died in April 1951.

Roscoe Conkling Simmons married his second wife Althea Amaryllis Merchant (1898-1981) in August 1929. She was raised in St. Louis, Missouri and was the daughter of Mary and James F. Merchant (railroad porter clerk). She attended the University of Illinois (1916-1920) and was a member and leader of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. After graduation, she became a teacher at a high school in St. Louis and the regional director of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She also taught in the Chicago public school system.

Mr. and Mrs. Simmons had two sons, William Murray Simmons and Thomas Murray Simmons. William Murray Simmons was born June 22, 1930. He attended St. Phillip High School in Chicago where he was a reporter for the school newspaper and played in the band. He later attended Harvard College on scholarship and was elected president of the Harvard Crimson, the undergraduate newspaper. He graduated from Harvard, Magna Cum Laude in 1952. Prior to attending Harvard Law School, William Simmons served as a captain in the United States Force. He earned his L.L.B. degree from Harvard Law in 1960 and spent his life as a lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts. Thomas Murray Simmons was born in 1932 also in Chicago, and educated in the Chicago school system. He attended Loyola University and received a Bachelor's degree in history in 1953. He graduated from Boston College Law School in 1956 where he had the honor of being the second African American graduate. Thomas Simmons spent his professional career as an attorney in private and general practice in Boston. He also taught courses at Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Thomas Murray Simmons died November 28, 2009 at the age of 77. Little is know about Roscoe Conkling Simmons's eldest son, Roscoe C. Simmons, Jr. However, he was popularly known as "Red" Simmons, well known night club entertainer. During the 1930s, Red Simmons was married to Pearl Baines, New York song and dance headliner.