Dorothy Yvonne Gates was released from the disease of dementia and passed peacefully away on November 11, 2023. She was born in Red Bay, Alabama in 1941. Her family moved to California’s San Joaquin Valley when she was 10. She was the youngest of six. She grew up in a hard-working family of agricultural workers who chopped cotton, picked fruit, and drove tractors.

In 1959, she married Bobby Kurtz and they had two children, Vicki and Daryl. In 1969, they moved to Willow Creek and took over the Standard Oil plant, delivering gas and diesel to a booming mill community. Yvonne worked at Bob’s Shopping Center, cleaned and cared for local homes, and started her own business as a seamstress. She was an artist in diverse mediums and took pleasure in painting and creating things for her family. She was a proficient bowler, card player and an avid golfer who achieved a hole in one over the Bigfoot Golf Course infamous #9 lake. She married Bernie Gates and learned to hunt and drive fast cars. They brought each other lots of joy as they hiked and drove mountain roads together. A few years after losing him to cancer, she began to spend time with her best friend, Gene Gates. They were married and began an adventurous life together seeing places they both had always dreamed of. They drove to Alaska and camped along the way. They drove across the country to Alabama where she spent some time with cousins that she hadn’t seen since she was a kid. They were camp hosts at Boca Campground in the Tahoe National Forest and docents at the Yankee Fork Dredge and Custer Ghost Town in Idaho. They worked at the Michael David Winery in Lodi driving the hay wagon and setting up the haunted maze for the annual pumpkin patch extravaganza. They made many friends along the way and joined them as snowbirds in Quartzsite, Arizona.

Yvonne was vibrant and full of positive energy, always full of laughter and the joy of living; she met everyone with a smile. She leaves behind her beloved husband Gene; daughter Vicki; niece Melissa Kurtz (Brooklynn, Jaiden, and Lincoln); nephews Christopher Kurtz (Lindsay and Ryan) and Devon Kurtz (Sylvia); daughter-in-law Shellee Kurtz; many nieces, and nephews; as well as her Gates stepchildren, nieces, and nephews, all of whom she also loved.

There are no services planned at this time.

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