Roll Call Tribute

Leon Travis Bates 

May 12, 1935 - October 20, 2023 

Leon Travis Bates, Jr. was born on May 12, 1935 in Bellmead, Texas to Leon Travis and Anna Belle Wilson Bates. He was the eldest son and second of five children born to this union. He died at home in Longview, Texas of Multiple Systems Atrophy on Friday, October 20, 2023 surrounded by his family.

The Great Depression he was born into, and later the War Years created hard times for his family like many others. He learned hard work and sacrifice from his parents, but his mother’s love softened the hardship. Leon had happy memories of playing with his sister and younger brother and of visits to his grandfather Bates’ farm in Aquilla, Texas. Those experiences gave him a lifelong love and knowledge of agriculture and gardening that he would use in his career and retirement years.

Leon attended and graduated from LaVega School District in Bellmead where he was an excellent student despite working long hours after school and during summers from age 13 when he started his work life as a “hop boy” on a Dr. Pepper truck. In high school, he worked late into the night stocking grocery shelves for HEB and Safeway.

At age 16, Leon accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and was baptized at Bellmead Church of Christ. By 18, he was traveling as a preacher of The Gospel. Leon would actively teach and preach the Word of God for the next 70 years, only slowing down earlier this year when disease made it too difficult for him to find his words. He was a lover of poetry and was reciting his favorite poems and long passages of the King James Version of the New Testament almost to the end.

Leon was a natural leader, teacher, preacher, and salesman. He was preaching as a young man in Kilgore, Texas when he met the love of his life Clara Bow Blair. They were married December 18, 1955. From his wife’s parents, R.L. and Jessie Blair, he learned more about hard work and agriculture like baling hay, cutting silage, and feeding cattle, but as he said, he also learned how to have fun. In the bargain, he acquired not only a wife but another little brother, Bob Blair, and a second set of parents. The Blair’s helped him attend Kilgore College and Texas A&M College. After completing his Master’s degree, he and Clara returned to Kilgore for him to teach at the college. Their first daughter, Terry, was born the first day of classes. Two years later daughter, Tammy, arrived. With a growing family to support, Leon took a job in sales for Allied Chemical and became a highly successful Regional Sales Manager only leaving because he was unwilling to move to the East coast and leave his parents, siblings, and church behind. After a year as a National Sales Manager for Dempster Industries, he began an entrepreneurial phase of his life that would see him create, help create, and own 6 different companies. He lifted so many others financially and spiritually along the way. Eventually, he “retired” to garden and work at the farm with daughter, Terry.

Leon survived a work-related truck wreck in Arkansas on May 23, 1979 that resulted in the tragic loss of his 18-year-old daughter, Tammy. Clara stayed by his side through months of hospitalization and rehabilitation. After he recovered, they began to pursue a shared passion for genealogy and traveled extensively digging through old courthouse records and stomping through overgrown cemeteries in search of elusive grave stones. In the process of researching Clara’s family, he became well versed on the history of the Republic of Texas and the Texas frontier.

In his seventh decade, Leon answered another calling and began traveling to the west African country of Ghana and later Togo to preach the gospel to thousands. His physical labor on the farm, and his ability to live on canned sardines and Vienna sausage prepared him for the rigors of the travel. His advanced age lent him extra credibility in a culture that reveres their elders, and he was successful in bringing hundreds of souls to Christ and planting dozens of churches while helping to train local ministers. After his Multiple Systems Atrophy symptoms made the trip impossible, Leon supported the efforts of others through fundraising.

Leon Travis Bates, Jr. was preceded in death by his parents and parents-in-law, his daughter, Tammy Bates; his sister Lanelle Allen; his brother Fred Allen Bates; and nephews Joe Bates and Bill McAllister. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Clara; his sister Brenda McAllister; sister and brother-in-law, Patti and Edward Florey; his brother-in-law and wife, Bob and Janette Blair; his daughter and son-in-law, Terry and Ronnie Wohlfahrt; grandson and wife, Trace and Kelley Wohlfahrt; granddaughter and husband, Whitney and Paul Urane; two great-grandsons, Sterling Wohlfahrt and Walker Urane; and nieces, Jean Cook and Jill Fender; nephews Jeff Bates, Lance McAllister and wife Melissa, Jeff Florey and wife Kristin, and Chuck Florey and wife, Sheri, and Jim and Soni McCrummen.

Services will be held Friday, October 27, 2023 at 1 p.m. at Pine Tree Church of Christ in Longview with interment at Rock Springs Cemetery in Gladewater, TX. There will be a visitation at Rader Funeral home in Longview on Thursday, October 26, 2023 from 5-7 p.m.