THURMAN CATES JR.
ADA-Services for Thurman Milton Cates Jr., 89, Ada, are 2 p.m. Monday at Criswell Funeral Home Chapel, Rev. Mike Barnett will officiate. Burial will follow at Memorial Park Cemetery. Military honors will be conducted by the Chickasaw Nation Honor Guard at the cemetery. The family will receive family and friends from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Criswell Funeral Home.
Mr. Cates died June 8, 2012, at a Mannford nursing center. He was born March 20, 1923, to Thurman Milton and Ida Wormington Cates, at Oklahoma City. He attended Ada Schools and retired from Chevron Oil, formerly Bentley-Haunschild. He worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) before serving in the United States Army during World War II. He was a Baptist.
He and Margaret Jean "Margie" Walker were married June 19, 1948. She died Feb. 20, 2008.
Survivors include two sons, Bruce Cates and wife Jannie, Mannford, and Roger Cates and wife Stephanie, Ada; a half-brother, Lawrence Barnett and wife Barbara, Houston; a sister-in-law, Pat Barnett, Oklahoma City; six grandchildren, Bruce Cates Jr. and wife Melody, Mark Cates and wife Christine, Jeremy Cates and wife Kristi, Kimberly Cates, Jaime Sutton and husband Bucky, and Brandon Cates; six great-grandchildren, Jolie Sutton, Arial Grider, Kaden Cates, Kaitlyn Cates, Jefferson Cates and Wyatt Cates.
He was preceded in death by a son, Gary DeWayne Cates.
Obituaries may be viewed and online condolences sent to criswellfh.com.
Criswell Funeral Home, Ada