Simmone Van Ooteghem


Simmone Van Ooteghem joined the Brooks-Howell community Monday, May 3, 1999. She was born December 23, 1927, in Antwerp, Belgium, to Charles and Marietta Van Ooteghem. Her father was a policeman. She had her elementary and secondary education in Antwerp. Brussels was occupied by Germany 1940-1945 and finally the schools were closed. The teachers, however, carried on correspondence with the students and thus they continued their studies. Feeling a call to the mission field, she had nurses’ training leading to the RN degree and did further study in tropical medicine.

A member of the Methodist Church in Belgium, in 1950 she was sent to the Belgian Congo by the Woman’s Division of Christian Service, Board of Missions, The Methodist Church. There she was the only missionary in charge of seven rural dispensaries, which she traveled to by any means available. She served there until 1959 when political conditions made necessary withdrawal from the field. Hoping to return one day, she had a year of study at Scarritt. From 1960 to 1993 she followed a nursing career in Tampa and Brooksville, Florida, and participated in the life of the Methodist/United Methodist churches there. In time her brother and sister followed her to the States. Her brother, John, now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he works in computers. He was nineteen when he came in 1960, having completed his military service in Belgium. Her sister, Monique (Mrs. Bessemer), also younger, lives in Ontario, Canada. She has one son, Philip. Simmone loves listening to classical music. Her hobbies are knitting and crocheting.

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