Doris Oates

DORIS PRICE OATES, retired school teacher, passed away peacefully with her family at her side April 14, 2006, at Wayne Memorial Hospital following a stroke. A life-time resident of Wayne County, Doris was born January 26, 1930, and reared on the John and Vivian Price family farm on the outskirts of Mount Olive. After marriage to her beloved husband of 57 years, Hugh Franklin Oates, Sr., Doris lived the majority of her adult life in town and was an active member of the Mount Olive community. Doris graduated from Mount Olive High School, attended Wayne Community College, Mount Olive College, and in 1972, she graduated cum laude from Atlantic Christian College in Wilson (now Barton College). She taught fourth grade in the Wayne County public school system, and was a member of the N. C. E. A. She was also a licensed cosmetologist. She was a devoted and active member of the First United Methodist Church of Mount Olive. An avid bridge player, Doris also enjoyed the companionship of her numerous friends in the Red Hat Club, and had great "adventures" with her husband and a circle of close friends in a travel club. Doris was a dedicated wife and a loving mother, and found her most fulfilling happiness in the bosom of her large family. She is survived by her husband, Hugh F. Oates, Sr.; their three children, Hugh F. Oates, Jr. and wife of Arlington, Va. and Cape Coral, Fla., Jerry W. Oates and wife of Wilmington, and Linda Oates Clifton and husband of New Bern; six grandchildren, Lawson Scott Oates, Katharine Blanche Oates Browder, Lindsay Nora Clifton, Matthew Sutton Oates, Laura Austen Oates, and William David Clifton; and two great-grandchildren, William Alexander Hugh Oates and Mackenzie Harris Browder. Doris was the last surviving sibling of the John and Vivian Price family which included David John Price, Sr., Kermit Price, Genetha Price Best, and Elnora Price Whetsell (and she is survived by numerous nieces and nephews). She was a loving and beloved member of the Oates family clan which included the extended family of her husband, Hugh's, nine siblings. Her family will receive friends and loved ones at the residence at 100 North Breazeale Avenue in Mount Olive on Easter Sunday after 3 p.m. Funeral services will be held Monday, April 17, at 1:30 p.m. from the First United Methodist Church, 120 East James Street in Mount Olive. Dr. H. Dennis Draper, Jr. will officiate, and interment will immediately follow in Wayne Memorial Park near Goldsboro.