Dorothy "Dot" Anne Corry Gates

A funeral service celebrating the life of Dorothy “Dot” Anne Corry Gates, 90 will be held at 1:00 p.m. Monday, August 22, 2022, at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2201 Airline Drive, Bossier City, Louisiana. Visitation will be held from 11:30 until the time of service. Burial to follow the service at Rose-Neath Cemetery, 5185 Swan Lake Spur, Bossier City, Louisiana. Officiating the service will be Reverend Brad Franklin.  

Dot was born December 18, 1931, in Arizona, Louisiana to William Bryant Corry and Gladys Copeland Corry, and passed away peacefully on Friday, August 19, 2022, at her home of six years, Bloom at Bossier, Bossier City, Louisiana, cared for tenderly by family members and loving caregivers. Dot had lived there with her husband, Robert H. (Bob) Gates, who had passed away on March 25, 2017, their 64^th wedding anniversary, holding her husband’s hand as he finished his life.

Dot was raised in the Arizona community, the youngest of three sisters, and attended Lisbon High School, graduating in 1950. While in high school, she excelled in academics, played basketball, played piano, and sang in her home church, the historic Arizona Methodist Church. She enjoyed an idyllic childhood, raised on the farm, playing with her sisters and friends. After high school, she attended Northwestern State University, Music (Piano Performance), and met the love of her life, Bob Gates. After his graduation and induction into the United States Air Force, they married on March 25, 1953, at Arizona Methodist Church. They began their married life together in San Antonio, Texas, and began family life together at duty stations in Fairbanks, Alaska. After returning home to Louisiana, they moved to Shreveport, settling in Benton where they raised their growing family.

Dot spent most of her adult career as an active, involved, and loving homemaker, wife, and mother. She spent 20 consecutive summers watching her sons play baseball, and supported her sons and husband in their varied interests. She worked as a substitute teacher and enjoyed a career as a librarian with the Bossier Parish Library System. She also served as a pianist and organist for the Benton United Methodist Church, as well as other area churches.

Dot loved gardening, reading, music, her church, and devoted herself to her family.   

Dot is preceded in death by her parents; husband, Robert H. Gates; oldest son, Robert Dan Gates; and sisters, Elaine Shanklin and Billy Jean Flanigan. She is survived by her three sons, John Benjamin Gates, Shreveport, LA, James Steven Gates and wife, Cynthia, of Opelousas, LA, and Joseph William Gates and wife, Kaylon of Bossier City, LA; grandchildren, Rachel Gates Hebert and husband, Kenneth of Lafayette, Mollie Gates Middleditch of Los Angeles, CA, Samuel Gates of Charlotte, NC, Margaret Gates of Orlando Fl, Asa Gates of Bossier City, LA; three great-grandsons, Kenneth Paul Herbert, Jr., William Gates Hebert, and John David Hebert of Lafayette, LA; and a host of other relatives and friends.

Honoring Dot as pallbearers will be Edward Shanklin, Larry Shanklin, Barry Shanklin, David Richardson, Gordon Bartage, and Kenneth Hebert. Serving as honorary pallbearers will be Orin Flanigan, Samuel Gates, Lambert Tasby, and Guy May.

 The family suggests that memorials may be made to Benton United Methodist Church, 4615 Palmetto Road, Benton, Louisiana 71006.