After Haley was discharged honorably from the army after World War I, on September 28, 1920, he married Bertha George Palmer, the daughter of William E. and Cynthia Murray Palmer of Henning, Tennessee.
The couple had three sons - Alexander Murray Palmer (1921–1992), George Williford Boyce (1925–2015), and Julius Cornell Embree (1930–2010) (who became an architect).
Bertha died on February 16, 1932, in Normal, Madison County, Alabama, after suffering for a year from "general glandular tuberculosis", according to her death certificate.
In September 1932, Simon married professor Zeona Eubank Hatcher, with whom he had a daughter, Lois Ann (1933–2004).
[2][3] DNA testing of Simon's grandson Chris (via his youngest son Julius) revealed that Simon's father Alec was most likely descended from Black Scottish ancestors via William Harwell Baugh, an overseer of an Alabama slave plantation.