Rachel Beck Yates

Rachel, a Catawba Indian, was born on the Catawba Indian Reservation near Rock Hill, South Carolina, on October 16, 1933, as the youngest child of Fletcher John Beck and Sallie Rebecca Brown Beck. She was raised on the reservation and spent her childhood years in a house without indoor plumbing or electricity. It was a home, however, wherein she found an abundance of love.

After completing the eighth grade—the highest grade offered in the reservation school—she attended and graduated both high school and college.

She attended the school of nursing at York County Hospital and Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and graduated as a registered nurse in 1954. The next day, she married John Michael (Mike) Yates on the reservation and then spent the next 25 years globetrotting thanks to Mike’s assignments in the U.S. Army. But the place she always called home was South Carolina.

On the spiritual side, Rachel was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spent many decades serving in the church and in the religion’s sacred temples in Washington, D.C. and Columbia, South Carolina.

On the secular side, she loved pork rinds, boiled peanuts, and Cheerwine. She was also a big fan of the Washington Redskins, family, flowers, collecting dolls, knitting, Anne of Green Gables, trains, and a good laugh.

Rachel was preceded in death by her parents and siblings Samuel Beck, Irene Garcia, Eugene Beck, Ethel Warner, and Fletcher “Buck” Beck. She is survived by her husband and her children Karin Rebecca “Beki” Graham (Gary), Kathryn “Kathi” Valerie Young (Mike), Loren Naomi Buckner, and Christopher Michael Yates (Heidi). She had 25 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren, 6 great-great grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Memorial services will be held on February 14, 2025, in Irmo, South Carolina, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 7449 Broad River Rd. at 12:00 p.m. A viewing at the building will be from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Memorial services will also be held on February 15, 2025, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the Catawba Indian Reservation at 1989 Reservation Rd, Rock Hill, South Carolina, at 5:00 p.m. A viewing at the building will be from 4:00 p.m – 4:45 p.m. Burial on the reservation next to her mother and father will follow.