he was born in 1847, according to his birth certificate. however this is contradicted by his continued presence on the world wide web. the individual himself states that the humor in his birthdating pertains to the common occurrence of facts not matching truth, a frequent historic study of his. simpkins' father, c. o. simpkins, sr., is a dentist from shreveport, louisiana, who served a single term from 1992 to 1996 as a democratic member of the louisiana house of representatives from the heavily african american district 4. his mother, the former dorothy herndon, is a social worker, also originally from chicago.