Alyce Irene (Llewellyn) Bates

Alyce Irene Bates was born Alyce Irene Llewellyn on August 26, 1924, in Michigan.  She passed away December 28, 2018, in Albuquerque, NM.  She was preceded in death by her husband, Wesley Bates, her parents, and her five sisters.  All of Wesley’s and Alyce’s five adult children survive:  Cliff Bates, Albuquerque; Janice Petrey, Crosby, Texas; Judi McKetta, Moscow, Idaho; Lisa Gadwa, Moscow, Idaho; and Paul Bates, Woodland Hills, California.  There are six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Alyce was the youngest of 6 girls in the Llewellyn family.  Her father, Rees Llewellyn, a Welshman, worked in the Ford auto plant in the Detroit area.  As a child, he had worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines and developed Black Lung, which took its toll on him through the years.     Her mother was Elizabeth Duncan Llewellyn.  The family, minus one daughter (who stayed behind to help an older relative) moved to Watts in the Los Angeles, California, area when her father lost his job  during the Great Depression.

Alyce’s family was poor, and neighbors in the area helped the family as they got settled.  Alyce’s father found little work at that time, and her mother did domestic work for family income.  Alyce and four sisters grew up in the Los Angeles area, all completing high school.  Even as a child and teenager, Alyce showed creative talents.  She loved to sew, cook, paint, coordinate activities, and always loved challenges.

Alyce graduated from Belmont High during World War II.  She went to work for Lockheed, wiring airplanes.  She moved to San Francisco, finding a room at a rooming house.  There, in 1945, she saw Wesley Bates, a 1st Lieutenant in the Marine Corps, at dinner one night. Wesley, who was home on leave, came down to dinner with his mother, also living at the rooming house.  Alyce thought he looked like a brand new, bright and shining penny in his uniform.  Wesley noticed Alyce, too, in particular her smile.  After dinner, Alyce took a new box of Whitman’s Samplers around to share with other residents, and thereby met Wesley.  Theirs was literally a “whirlwind” courtship.  They married three weeks later, and were married 60 years at the time of Wesley’s death.

Wesley’s knickname for Alyce was “Smiley.” She smiled quickly and easily.  Her favorite song has always been “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific.  She felt it described perfectly the night that she saw Wesley, across the crowded dining room, and magic happened.

Alyce and Wesley married in Lake Forest, Illinois, October 16, 1945.  Wesley went back to school at Michigan State University, Lansing, Mich, to complete his work on a degree in Forestry and Soils.  Alyce and Wesley began their family quickly, first Cliff, then Janice, Judi, Lisa and then Paul.  Wesley farmed in Michigan for 8 years before taking his first job in forestry with the Texas Forest Service in 1956.  The family lived in 3 small East Texas over the course of 9 years.  In 1965, the family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when Wesley took a job with the U.S. Forest Service.  The family thrived with their move to New Mexico, relishing the beautiful country and the history there.  Alyce and Wesley subsequently moved to Albuquerque in 1972, with Wesley’s job transfer, where they bought the home in which Alyce still lived at the time of her passing.  (She was in the hospital and assisted living briefly).  Wesley and Alyce loved Albuquerque and their neighborhood.

Along the way, Alyce learned to be a farm wife – to can foods, handle the dressing of farm animals used for food, to paint and wall-paper, and the myriad of other duties and activities of farm wives.  After the family moved to Texas, she earned a license in Cosmetology, decorated and sold cakes for special occasions, did seamstress work for family and others, a variety of things to help supplement the family income.  She made clothing and other items such as drapes, bedspreads, and so forth.  While living in New Mexico, Alyce became active with the Society of American Foresters’ wives’ group, the Albuquerque Welsh Society, bowling leagues, sewing groups, and other organizations.  She continued to bake and decorate cakes, informally dress hair, and take on other challenges.  She and Wesley were active in neighborhood organizations.

Life changed when Wesley died in 2005.  Alyce continued to be active in several organizations.  She still relished her first cup of coffee in the morning while reading the daily newspaper.  She enjoyed the humor sections and was upset by injustices.  She followed on-going stories of both local and national figures.  Alyce continued to look forward to the holidays.  She decorated eggs at Easter, prepared good Thanksgiving dinners, and loved decorating for Christmas.  She particularly enjoyed all the get-togethers, the cookie exchanges, efforts to do gifts for those in nursing homes, the luncheons, and so forth.

Alyce loved her children and was fiercely protective of them.  She also loved her puppies through the years, and was fiercely protective of them as well!  She loved family gatherings such as birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, when everyone got together and helped put the dinners together.  Her children have continued to visit her, and to be with her on her birthdays since Wesley’s passing.  She loved bouquets of flowers, Baskin-Robbins pralines-and-cream ice cream cakes, but mostly having her family around her.  She loved hearing from others that she was fortunate to have her children still visiting her, keeping up with her, helping her as they could.

We will all miss her, a really good mother, a good and loyal friend, a defender and an advocate.  She has kept her family connected and in-touch for a very long time.  It’s never easy to say good-bye, but she has talked of wanting to see Wesley again for a quite a while now, and she has been very tired and weary at times.  This last hospital visit was very difficult, and she could not return home right away.  Although she had wonderful help and attention these past several weeks, she decided it was time to go Home, and so she did.

We love you, Mom.  We will miss you more than you could ever know.  But we thank you for all the time you gave us, that you were here for us for such a long time despite health issues, and that finally, you did decide to go.  Heaven was waiting.

Alyce would have preferred donations be made to the humane society of choice, in lieu of flowers, should anyone feel the need.

Memorial Services will be held Wednesday, January 9, 2019, 10:00 a.m., at FRENCH - Wyoming with a reception to follow.