Cyrena Hoffman Simonds was born June 15, 1877 in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario, daughter of Leonard Wells Simonds and Rosette Harriet Johnson. She married John Isaac Franklin Anthes November 10, 1897 and the couple had five children: Olive Cyrena; Edith Louise; Leonard John; Henry Herbert and Norman Franklin. Cyrena died September 15, 1945 in Toronto and was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.