Dawn Langley Simmons was born on October 15, 1922 in Kent, England, UK. She was married to John-Paul Simmons. She died on September 18, 2000 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
Underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1968, and early the following year wed in the first legal interracial marriage in South Carolina.
Referenced in the film Withnail & I (1987), set in 1969, in which the character Marwood reads a tabloid newspaper article about Gordon Langley Hall, entitled "I Had to Become a Woman".