BATES, Opal Maxine 1916 - 2015

BATES, MORRISON, ALEXANDER

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 8/13/2015 at 20:29:18

"The Fairfield Ledger"
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Page 8

Opal Maxine BATES

Opal Maxine BATES, 99, died Thursday, July 9, 2015, in Sebring, Florida.

A memorial service was held Friday at the SIM Chapel in Sebring, Florida.

Memorial contributions can be made to the SIM Retirement Village or to Sunridge Baptist Church of Sebring, Florida. Online condolences can be left at www.stephensonnelsonfh.com.

Arrangements were entrusted to Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home.

Miss BATES was born in a rural community near Fairfield, the daughter of Vernon and Gail BATES.

Miss BATES was always interested in teaching and started out practicing on her four younger brothers and sisters.

She accepted Christ as her lord and savior at the age of 18 and went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to learn more about the Bible.

After graduation, she was one of the first missionaries sent out by the Western Springs Baptist Church in Illinois when Billy Graham was the pastor. She went to Nigeria under the Sudan Interior Mission in 1944, and taught Bible classes in Nigerian schools from 1944-1974. Then she moved to the country of Niger where she taught primarily at a Leprosarium until her retirement in 1985.

She retired to the SIM Retirement Village in Sebring, Florida, in 1989 where she attended Sunridge Baptist Church.

Survivors include: two sisters, Alice MORRISON of Grand Island, Florida, and Lynda ALEXANDER of Bloomington, Minnesota.

She was preceded in death by: two brothers, Floyd BATES of Winfield and Quentin BATES of Bethesda, Maryland.

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*Copied with permission from The Fairfield Ledger, Inc. This material may NOT be copied and re-posted in any public venue such as Ancestry or Find A Grave without permission from The Fairfield Ledger ~ copyright restrictions apply.
*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

Note: The Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home website notes that she was born on April 18, 1916.