Brent "Tiger" Bates

Funeral services for Benjamin “Tiger” Bates will be held on Monday, September 14th, 2015 at 10:00 AM at the Reed-Culver Chapel with Pastor Allen McBride officiating. Interment will follow at Tahlequah City Cemetery. Online condolences for his family may be left at www.reedculver.com.

Pallbearers for Benjamin include Jerry Swift, Gary Swift, Jack Skinner, Johnny Risley, Robert Green, and Darrell Davis. His cousins will serve as honorary pallbearers.

Benjamin Brent Bates, or Tiger to his family and friends, was born on May 13th, 1975 in Tahlequah, OK, the son of Ben Richard and Barbara Jean Bates. He attended Tahlequah High School. Tiger was an outdoors man. He loved fishing, hunting and camping every chance he got. He had a great sense of humor and was always playing a prank on someone in the family. Once he substituted a unboiled egg at the family Easter egg hunt and convinced a cousin to crack it on her head, the yolk was running down her head! He liked his feline buddy “Icky” and was always happy to see his family whenever he could. He was wonderful to be around and made those he was with feel special and loved. Tiger passed from this life on September 3rd, 2015 at his home in Tahlequah, OK. He was 40 years old. Tiger will be missed by all those who loved him and knew him best.

Tiger is preceded in death by his grandmother, Betsy Gilbert, his grandpa, Riley Smith, his dad, Ben Bates in 1989, and his brother, Cicero “Bill” Smith in 1993.

Those left to cherish Tiger’s memory include his mother, Barbara Jean Bates of Tahlequah, OK, his beloved cousins, Joann Swift and husband Jerry of Tahlequah, OK, Jerry Swift Jr. and wife Jennifer of Tahlequah, OK, Johnny Risley of Tahlequah, OK, Jack Skinner and wife Cindy of Tahlequah, OK, Gary Swift and wife Sara of Tahlequah, his best buddy, Robert Green, as well as many other cousins and a host of friends and loved ones.