Richard Simmons’ Brother Shares Heartfelt Eulogy About Fitness Guru During His Celebration of Life: Read It in Full

Richard Simmons‘s brother is opening up about his life and legacy, almost three months after his death.

During the late fitness guru’s celebration of life at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans on Saturday, Oct. 5, his brother Lenny Simmons spoke about Richard’s life and background — as well as how his faith drove him to find his true calling in life.

Calling the eulogy “God’s Plan For Richard Simmons: A Tribute,” Lenny spoke about how his brother was always in search of ways to leave his mark on the world and help others.

Richard died on July 13, the day after his 76th birthday. A small funeral was held for him on July 19, and he was buried at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles.

Two days before his death, Richard gave what would be his final interview to PEOPLE, during which he was asked what it meant to be called “a legend.” He replied, “I don’t hear it at all. I don’t hear the word legend. I don’t hear the word icon. I never lived a celebrity life. I never thought of myself as a celebrity.

Here, read Lenny’s tribute to his late brother in full:

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If you are a person of faith, you believe that God has a plan for all of us. Sometime his plans take a while to happen. So, how long did take for my brother, Richard Simmons, to find out what God had planned for him? Let me tell you a little story.

Richard was born Milton Teagle Simmons on Thursday, July 12, 1948, at Touro Infirmary Hospital at 11:17 AM. He was named after his Uncle Milton, whose nickname was Dick, so my parents called him Dicky.

Our father was Leonard Douglas Simmons, a renaissance man who started out in show business in vaudeville when he was a teenager. After being discharged from the army at the end of World War I, he went to New York and sang in the chorus on many Broadway shows. He then went to Hollywood to become a motion picture actor in 1927, where he appeared in some of the last silent and first talking movies.

Later he came back to New York and became a master of ceremonies at nightclubs. It was there he met our mother Shirley Satin in 1937, and they soon became a couple.

Shirley was born Sadie Wachtinsky, the third daughter of Jewish immigrants from the small village of Korsun, which now is in Ukraine.

Shirley liked modeling and dancing so she moved to New York from Philadelphia to get a job there. Since this was during the Great Depression, Shirley took any job that she could get, so [she] became a burlesque and fan dancer in nightclubs.

In 1939, our parents came down to New Orleans for my father’s two-week job at a nightclub in the French Quarter. They fell in love with the city, its people and the food. So, they decided to make New Orleans their home.

After my father was discharged from the Army Corps at the end of World War II, Leonard and Shirley decided to start a family. I came along in 1946 and Richard followed twenty months later in 1948.

Dicky and I had a happy childhood growing up in the French Quarter. We attended St. Louis Cathedral Parochial School and went to mass every Sunday in this beautiful church. We both graduated from Cor Jesu High School (which is now Brother Martin High School).

In 1966, Dicky decided that he had a vocation to become a Catholic priest. He said wanted to help people. But before he went to the seminary, he changed his mind. God has other plans for him. He graduated from Florida State University in 1970 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He had even spent a semester in Florence, Italy, studying art and design.

After graduation, Dicky, with diploma in hand, went to New York City to find his dream job in the Big Apple in commercial art, but because of a recession that year there were no jobs available. He came back home to New Orleans dejected, and Mom got him a job at Maison Blanche on Canal St. selling men’s shirts and ties during the Christmas season.

After the holidays, Shirley helped him get a position being a sales representative for Coty’s Cosmetics, the same company that Mom was employed as a cosmetic consultant at Maison Blanche. Dicky decided he needed a more professional name, so he started calling himself Richard Simmons

He traveled around the country from one shopping mall to another for the company. They transferred him to Los Angeles in 1973. He called my parents to tell them that he was quitting his job because he was tired of traveling and wanted to stay in Los Angeles. Little did he know that he would travel almost three hundred days a year within two years.

We were all wondering what he would do next with his life. But God had other plans for him. He eventually got a job as a waiter and a maître d’ at an Italian restaurant called Derricks Second Floor. His infectious personality and humor brought in more customers to the little restaurant. They all loved Richard Simmons.

Soon celebrities and producers were coming to the restaurant just to see Richard. One producer offered him a job to portray himself as a fitness expert on the daytime soap opera, General Hospital. His popularity skyrocketed.

So, at the age of 26, Richard Simmons finally knew what God wanted him to do. He wanted Richard to help people, motivate people, encourage people to get healthy and lose weight and get fit and have fun doing it.

Sadly, we lost Richard the day after his 76th birthday on July 13, 2024. I lost my only brother, but all of you lost a friend, a teacher and a motivator.

When my wife Cathy and I were flying back home to New Orleans from Los Angeles after attending his funeral with only eight people at the service, we made a promise to my brother that we would have a Celebration of his Life in his own hometown.

We are all so grateful and humbled for the outpouring of love and support that you are giving my brother.

I want to let you all in on a little secret: Richard is wearing his tank top and shorts underneath his clothes just in case God’s final plan for him is to get all the angels and saints in Heaven into shape. Richard Simmons will forever be “Sweating with the Holies.”