William Craig Coats

William Craig Coats began a life filled with adventure on September 8, 1935, in Montgomery, Ala. He was the first-born son of William Austin Coats and Carrie Craig Coats. While a boy, his family (now with little brother John), moved to South Florida. There began Billy’s lifelong love of the water. He attended the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., and became a champion diver.

Later, Billy majored in philosophy and history at the University of Alabama, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. However, he spent the majority of his time in the pool halls of Tuscaloosa, accompanied by a host of shady characters, including the infamous one-armed bookie Nub Thrower.

Thanks to his wanderlust, 20-year-old Billy enlisted in the Army as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, spending much of that tour in Germany. After raising Cain and breaking hearts all over Europe, he enrolled in the University of Alabama School of Law where beautiful, talented Binnie Pulliam caught his eye as he was on “assignment” as the original ZAP photographer. They married and soon welcomed three daughters, Stacy, Leslie and Bess. He sold lightbulbs door to door and raised rabbits to support his young family, but at his father's urging, went to work at the family business, Coats Lumber Company. Soon, the rebellious young Billy chafed under the thumb of his father and Uncle Red Coats, and he decided to try his hand at building houses. So began a successful career as a homebuilder and the owner of a mortgage company, all the while feeding his gambler’s heart by playing the stock market. At the age of 60, he dyed his graying hair to appear younger and secured a seat on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade.

When not working, Billy was a voracious reader, and the mastermind behind frequent, spontaneous family vacations that were always an adventure. . .destinations always near a casino. He was generous to a fault with friends and family.

He is preceded in death by his parents, his daughter Bess Catherine Coats, and his brother John Bennett Coats.

Billy leaves behind to tell the tales of a life well-lived, his wife of 62 years, Binnie; daughters Stacy Coats Randle and Leslie Coats Martorana (Loren); grandchildren Alison Goodwyn Bajoka (Dave), George Thomas Goodwyn III (Sarah), Caroline Christian Bromberg, William Gregory Bromberg III, Benjamin Carter Goodwyn, Adelaide Bromberg Hughes (Tyler); and great-grandchildren William Coats Hughes, Elinor Austin Hughes, Winifred Marie Bajoka, and George Bostrom Goodwyn.

A parlor service will be held Tuesday, January 16, 2024, 2:00 pm, at Leak Memory Chapel, 945 Lincoln Road, Montgomery, AL 36109. Presiding will be Reverend Richmond Webster, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook, AL.