Virginia Gates Wilson

Virginia Gates Wilson passed away May 31, 2012 at the age of 91. She was born September 19, 1920 in England, Arkansas. She had three sisters and two brothers which all preceded her in death; Ruthie, Saint Elmo, Dolly Mae, Marie and Ira. Virginia had an interesting life and her family raised her for the horse show ring. In her early teens, Virginia was showing Tennessee Walking Horses along with her dad, 2 brothers and her sister Marie, at 18 Virginia was Rodeo Queen at the Okmulgee Rodeo. Virginia was 20 when she married Ivan Hooper Gates who was 16 years her senior and a Highway Patrolman. Ivan serviced in the Coast Guard during WW II and Virginia went to her family home in Okmulgee for the duration. As the years went by Virginia and Ivan traveled a great deal and even went to California to see her sister Maria race her quarter horses and go on the movie set with her brother Ira who was a stuntman and horse trainer. Virginia and Ivan traveled to Acapulco and one morning Virginia wanted some white shoe polish, she did not speak the language and she kept saying “I want white shoe polish” and the clerk kept saying “blanco”. This went on for a few minutes when Ivan intervened and had the clerk show Virginia the actual bottle. She thought the clerk was saying black in Spanish; they had a good laugh about that. Virginia and Ivan never had any children but they asked her brother Ira if they could have one of his girls to take home for the summer to Clinton, Oklahoma. Cindy stayed with Virginia and Ivan a little longer than the summer and came home in 1952 to start the 7th grade. Virginia was preceded in death by her two husbands; Ivan H. Gates her husband of 47 years before his passing, and Junior L. Wilson, her husband of 15 years before his passing.