Vera Simonaitis

Vera Simonaitis, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, passed away on Monday, September 3 from septic shock. She is survived by her three children, Steven Simonaitis (wife Amy), Rachel Smith (husband Michael), Laura Macleay, and four grandchildren, Patrick and Matthew Smith, Heather Redhead, and James Rush.
Vera's passing was sudden and unexpected. She was living life and loving it, hanging out at the pool with her neighbors, going to physical therapy, and making improvements that included climbing the stairs again. She was also sewing clothes for herself once more.
Born in Chicago, she attended college but didn't find it to her liking so she took a job as a secretary at the Playboy Club. A mutual friend, Andy, thought Richard and Vera would be a perfect couple so he set them up on a blind date. The story goes that Vera met Richard at the door in her slippers because she didn't know how tall he was. They married soon after and the rest is history.
Vera was an excellent seamstress. As a young mother, she enjoyed sewing her daughters' Christmas dresses and Halloween costumes. She even made matching pajamas for her entire family! When Rachel joined The Savannah Young People's Theatre, Vera transferred her sewing expertise to stage costumes. Over the years, she helped with costumes for numerous shows. She loved being the costumer for her theatre productions.
Vera and Girl Scouts were one and the same. She started as Rachel's Junior Girl Scout leader (grades 4th -6th). She never liked the camping part, but she went along because the girls loved it and her co-leaders could make awesome coffee over an open fire. When Rachel moved up to Cadettes, mom just couldn't make herself move up with the teenagers so she stayed with Juniors. She eventually became Laura's Junior Girl Scout leader and then she and her co-leader decided to follow their last group of girls until they all graduated high school. She loved her girls and treated them as her additional daughters.
As the kids got older, Vera became interested in speech pathology and decided to go back to college to start her own career, attending Armstrong State College. She was a student and a mother. She studied hard and still was there for the family, driving the kids to their lessons, theatre rehearsals, and scout meetings. Throughout her long career as a speech therapist, she helped numerous students in Chatham County Schools learn their s's, and r's and th's. She enjoyed seeing and hearing her students grow and succeed. I remember it taking longer than most families to get through with grocery shopping because she seemed to know every kid in town, and they all wanted to say "hi!"






Vera loved her family and was proud of her grandkids. She had 80 great years; we should all be so lucky. Join us as we remember Vera on Sunday, November 4 at 2:00 p.m. at the Tybee Post Theatre at 10 Van Horne Ave, Tybee Island, GA 31328. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages you to make a donation to your local theatre group or the Girl Scouts or your favorite local charity in Vera's name.