Web posted
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ark City native Oates dies in Arkansas
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net
An Arkansas City native who later became a Little Rock, Ark., socialite and the first woman elected to the Arkansas Legislature in over 30 years died March 4, 2008, after a long illness at a hospital in Little Rock, Ark.
Funeral services for Will Etta (Willie) Long Oates were held last Friday in the snow, an employee at Little Rock Funeral Home said. She was buried in Little Rock next to her husband, Dr. Gordon Page Oates.
Will Etta Long Oates died at age 90.
She was a 1936 graduate of Arkansas City High School and the daughter of Harry and Fern Long. Harry Long operated Long's Drug Store where Taylor Drug is now. He was a well-known civic leader and town booster.
Oates was known in Arkansas as the "Hat Lady" after she started wearing hats on special occasions and eventually made them part of her everyday ensemble, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
An Ark City High School classmate, Bill Stewart, described her as "very active and vivacious." The 1936 high school yearbook, the Mirror, said she took college prep courses and was involved in several activities such as: band twirler, Girl Reserves, Glee Club, Messiah, opera, rhythm class, Ark Light reporter, conference health chairman.
She took on the personality of her father, Harry Long, a former city commissioner who was named mayor in April 1939, said retired Ark City merchant Albert Clemente.
Harry was very generous and known throughout town for his hearty laugh, said Clemente, a retired Ark City druggist who operated his store at the former Long's Drug site.
"She would go to these different parties, put on a great show and put on hats," Clemente said. "She had a wonderful personality. Everybody liked her."
Stewart noted that Oates kept up with Class of '36 activities and showed up at class reunions.
She settled in Arkansas after graduating from the University of Arkansas, and became a booster of the university football team.
"Up until a few years ago, she put on a cheerleader uniform and went to the University of Arkansas games," Stewart said.
In 1959, she became the first woman elected to the Arkansas Legislature in more than 30 years, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said. More recently, she spent the night in the White House during Clinton's presidency.
After graduating from Ark City High School and spending a year at junior college, Oates attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
She met her future husband at the university, Gordon Page Oates, from Little Rock, who was studying to be a doctor. After they married, they settled in Little Rock.
She was active in many charitable and civic organizations and became a well-known booster at University of Arkansas events.
Willie Oates was an active volunteer and organizer all her life, an obituary printed in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said. She belonged to over 50 national, state and local organizations and served on over 25 boards.
She was one of the founders of the Salvation Army Auxiliary 60 years ago and organized the first chapter of the American Cancer Society in Arkansas.
Among the many awards and honors she received, some of the most notable were the Distinguished Citizen Award (1981), the Salvation Army's Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), the Sen. David Pryor Award for Seniors in Community and Volunteer Service (1997) and the United Cerebral Palsy National Achievement Award.
Willie was also very proud of being the first woman member of the Founder's Lions Club in 1988 and her selection as one of 10 "Heroes" in Arkansas to carry the Olympic flame in 1996.
She was also active in First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock for many years.
Survivors include a brother, Robert Long, of Mesa, Ariz.; son, Randy and his wife Hermine "Sam" Oates, of Little Rock; daughter, Deborah Oates Erwin and her husband David Weeks, of Buffalo, N.Y., and grandchildren.
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