DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270606

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: FRANKLIN                          LENGTH:   26 lines

LOIS M. GATES

Elma Lois Mountford Gates, 76, died Nov. 26, 1997.

Mrs. Gates, a native of North Carolina, was the daughter of the late A.J. and Mary Lee Francis Mountford and the widow of Linwood Gates. She was a retired dietician's aide at Obici Hospital, Suffolk, and was a member of Hebron Baptist Church, Capron.

She is survived by two daughters, Patricia Ann G. Meekins of Chesapeake, Sonya Lee G. Gardner of Ivor; a son, Robert Judd Gates of Van Buren, Ark.; two sisters, Willie Louis Harris and Faye Smith; eight grandchildren, Pamela Gates, Deborah Gates, Robert Judd Gates Jr., Bryce Meekins, Jennifer Meekins, Joey Gardner, Jon Gardner, Sue Ann Gardner Blythe; and eight great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by four sisters, Helen Simms, Dorothy Carruth, Sarah Hoover and Emily McClanahan.

A graveside funeral will be conducted at 2 p.m. Friday in Rosemont Cemetery, Sedley, by the Rev. Larry Cribb. The family will receive friends at the home of Joseph and Sonya Gardner, 16197 Mission Church Road, Ivor, Va., and suggests that memorials be made to the American Lung Association of Virginia, P.O. Box 7065, Richmond, Va. 23221. Wright Funeral Home is handling arrangements. KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY

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