Joe Simpson

Joseph Woodward Simpson (born March 30, 1921 in Birmingham; died December 20, 1977 in Birmingham) was an attorney, real estate investor and bookstore owner.

Simpson was the son of James A. Simpson, a state legislator and founding partner in the law firm of Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville. His mother, the former Josephine Woodward Evins, a granddaughter of Joseph Woodward, died during his birth. James Simpson remarried in 1928, to Florence Evans, and had two more sons, Henry and James Evans.

Simpson served in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He was serving as a Lieutenant when he married Virginia Ellicott Youmans in Nashville, Tennessee on March 25, 1944. He completed law school and joined his father's firm.

In the mid-1950s, Simpson spent much of his time and energy on restoring Rosemount, an 1830's Greek Revival-style plantation house in Greene County, which he presented to his wife as an anniversary gift in 1958. In the late 1960s, the Simpsons moved into the former Theodore Swann residence on Redmont Road.

In the 1960s Simpson edited a conservative newspaper and financed the publication of a couple of right-wing books. Over the next several years he shifted left in his politics. He participated in the Birmingham Writer's Workshop as a student and instructor, and was involved, with Virginia, in overseeing a change in the Birmingham Art Association and its association with the Birmingham Museum of Art in 1969. The issue opened a rift between Simpson and his father and half brothers.

In 1974 Simpson opened a bookstore, which he named "Joe (bookstore)", for himself. The store's neon sign was later leased and reused for Rowland and Joyce Scherman's bar of the same name.

On the morning of August 31, 1977 a maid discovered that Virginia had been shot to death. Joseph was out of town. Their son, James II, known as "Popsie", was initially charged with the murder. There was testimony to the effect that he had offered large sums for his mother's death, but those witnesses were discredited in preliminary hearings and the charges were dropped.

In December of the same year, Joe Simpson was hospitalized with a ruptured stomach ulcer, and died in surgery. He is buried at Elmwood Cemetery.

External links

• Joseph Woodward Simpson at Findagrave.com