Wanda Ruth Simmons Westbrook passed away on November 22, 2025, at the age of 95. With her passing, Riverview lost one of its last living connections to the families who shaped the community long before paved roads, interstate highways and large-scale development.
Wanda Westbrook was the last surviving child of Herman G. Simmons and Mildred Long Simmons. She grew up in a Riverview of dirt roads, open land and working farms and lived to see it become the community it is today.
The Simmons family’s roots in South Hillsborough County trace back to the 1800s. Descended from Marshall V. Simmons, the family first settled in Bloomingdale and Parrish before establishing permanent roots in Riverview. Over time, Simmons family land stretched along Big Bend Road west of U.S. 301 toward Bullfrog Creek.
Herman Simmons built a home along what became known as Simmons Loop Road, land that decades later would be redeveloped into the site of St. Joseph’s Hospital South. During Wanda Westbrook’s childhood, Big Bend Road was unpaved, homes were widely spaced, and life centered on farming, church, and family.
After Herman Simmons married Mildred Simmons, who moved to Florida from Tennessee, the couple operated a dairy farm on roughly 60 acres along Simmons Loop. Mildred Simmons later managed the dairy on her own while raising the children, overseeing the daily milking of about 65 cows.
Because of the dairy operation, the Simmons property received electricity earlier than much of South County, where widespread service did not arrive until the early 1930s. Milk was hauled in 10-gallon stainless steel containers to a Tampa dairy cooperative later absorbed by Sealtest. In later years, milk was also delivered directly to nearby homes.
Early Riverview life was simple and close-knit. Shopping was mostly local, with occasional trips into Tampa and Ybor City. Bullfrog Creek once ran clear and wide enough for swimming, easily accessible from Simmons family land. Wanda Westbrook also remembered severe storms, including a powerful hurricane in the mid-1930s that flooded the area and uprooted large oak trees.
By the time she reached adulthood, Riverview was already beginning its slow shift away from its agricultural roots.
Wanda Westbrook attended Wimauma High School, back then the only high school serving South Hillsborough County. After graduation, she worked at Margaret Ann’s Grocery — later known as Quik Check and Winn-Dixie — where she met her future husband, Charles Westbrook.
Charles Westbrook served in the U.S. Navy, and the couple spent nearly two decades stationed away from Florida, primarily along the East Coast. After his military service, they returned to Riverview, where Herman Simmons provided each of his children with a parcel of land along Simmons Loop.
Wanda and Charles Westbrook built their home on one of those parcels, land that today sits directly across from the hospital complex that now dominates the area. Married for 40 years, they raised four children together before Charles Westbrook passed away at age 62 from cancer.
Faith and family remained central throughout Wanda Westbrook’s life. She was a longtime member of Simmons Loop Baptist Church, which served as a gathering place for generations of the Simmons family.
Earlier family reunions were held on the Simmons ranch and along Bullfrog Creek, drawing hundreds of relatives. Over time, changes in water flow, particularly following the construction of Interstate 75, altered the creek’s condition. When the ranch was no longer available, reunions continued at the church. In later years, those gatherings became harder to maintain due to age and illness, quietly marking the close of another chapter in the family’s long presence along Simmons Loop.
For more than four decades, Wanda Westbrook also worked as an Avon representative, becoming a familiar and trusted presence in Riverview neighborhoods. She was remembered for her kindness, steadiness and generosity toward those she encountered.
Today, little physical evidence remains of the Simmons family dairy farm or the open land that once lined Simmons Loop Road. In its place stand hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and medical offices, symbols of Riverview’s growth.
Yet the family’s legacy endures in the geography itself. Simmons Loop Road is traveled daily by thousands who may never realize it bears the name of a real family whose land, labor and lives helped shape the community.
With the passing of Wanda Westbrook, Riverview lost more than a longtime resident. It lost a living bridge to its earliest days, a reminder that beneath today’s development lies a history built by families whose stories still matter and deserve to be remembered.
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