ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jane E. B. Simmons is a free-lance professional writer, lecturer, and artist. A
member of Saddle & Bridle magazine’s Board of Editors since March 2003, Jane
“paints” a picture in her column (entitled Word Portrait) of horse people with
their own words. It appears in the national full-color monthly equine magazine.
Jane, an award-winning writer, has served as a national reporter based in
Washington, D.C., a Missouri State Capitol News Bureau Chief, an editor, and
a radio political commentator. She is a founder of several national not-forprofit organizations. She is a former State President of the Missouri Writers’
Guild, founded in 1915 at the University of Missouri Journalism School, by
and for published professional writers. One of her four books was selected in
Missouri schools as an entertaining textbook on the state’s government; two of
her books are on specific aspects of the Show Me State’s government. Her first
book documented the history of a famous landmark in Missouri’s capital city. Jane is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Jane also offers fun workshops, such as Grandparents as Genealogy Gurus, The Hidden Dynamics of Politics, English Enhancement
Power Skills, and her latest — Writing An Historical Biography Without Going Cross-Eyed. She consents occasionally to
accepting a commission to do a portrait oil painting. And in her spare time, Jane’s been known to play a few rounds of golf.
Her latest book reveals the life and times of one of the most famous showmen in 20th Century America’s horse world, Art Simmons...her
father. The century’s world events that impacted his young life and career are woven into the book “When my father started out, there
were no credit cards, TV, air-conditioned tractors, armored tanks, cell phones, and 18-wheelers,” Jane pointed out. “There were just
mules and horses and plows, the telegraph, and the railroads to power America’s industry and wars, and to put food on kitchen tables.
“Before his death in January 1995, Art Simmons was called a Living Legend by his peers. Since his passing, the full understanding
and appreciation of his contributions to the industry during nearly eight decades of training, showing, breeding, and buying and
selling horses has propelled him to the status of icon in the horse world,” Jane said. Genealogists, photography and history buffs are
finding a gold mine of information in the book’s photographs and stories shared about the hundreds of individuals included in the
100-year span covered in the book. Jane happily resides in Winter Garden, and has been an ongoing contributor since early 2016.
SEPTEMBER 2016
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WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
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