She was born in Miami, FL on Jan. 20, 1927 to Frederick Walter Kirk and Gladys Evelyn (Carlson) Kirk. She spent her younger years in Cleveland, OH and Buffalo, NY. She met and married James D. Bates in 1948. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1949 - majoring in English and Drama. From there she and Jim moved and made their home in Gorham, NH. She was a homemaker while her children were young, then a school teacher in both Gorham and Northwood, NH. She married her second husband Richard Morrison in 1979 and moved to Durham, NH. She and Richard made a permanent move to Sarasota, FL in 2010. She had a lifelong love affair with stamp collecting, books and learning.
Survived by her second husband of 35 years, Richard Morrison, Sarasota, FL; 2 sons, David J. Bates and wife Virginia, Melrose, MA and Thomas F. Bates and wife Michelle, Aberdeen, SD; 2 daughters, Nancy Ellen Lands and husband Michael, Montclair, NJ and Susan E. Spargo and husband Rick, Port Charlotte, FL; a stepson and stepdaughter from her second marriage - Robert H. Morrison, Berlin, MA and Frances M. Bates, Dover, NH; 8 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren
