Rose Mildred Gates

Rose Gates and her identical twin Ruthie Turner were born to Benjamin Lynn and Pearl May Carpenter on January 9, 1923 in Arriba, Colorado. She attended Campion Academy, in Loveland, Colorado. Rose married Robert C. Gates on April 12, 1942 and they lived together in Lakewood, Colorado.

She leaves as her legacy three children: Robert C. Gates, Jr., John W. Gates and Linda D. Sanchez. Rose also leaves four grand-children, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. They loved her as she loved them.

Rose was preceded in death by Robert C. Gates, Sr., her husband, and Robert C. Gates, Jr., her son. Rose’s identical twin-sister, Ruthie, also has preceded her in death.

As a foster-child, she and her sister Ruth attended the neighborhood Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with their foster-mother, they were baptized and accepted “the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior”. The Adventist Church and their acceptance of Christ completely transformed their lives.

As a result of the poverty and abuse that she suffered, Rose spent her life helping others. As a young woman, she washed and pressed clothes that she distributed to the poor of Denver through the old “Welfare Center” of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In 1951, Rose helped establish the Adventist Community Services in Denver, now known as the ACS Life Interventions for Families in Transition (LIFT). After hearing the story of a homeless man who froze to death on a Denver sidewalk, Rose and her husband Bob, took to the streets with clean socks, coats and peanut butter sandwiches.

As a long-time resident of Holly Creek Retirement Community, she and Ruthie organized “Needles and Threads”, a knitting and sewing club that creates blankets and sweaters for Warm Hearts and Warm Babies. Warm Harts and Warm Babies is an Arvada non-profit group which donates the blankets and sweaters to hospitals, crisis pregnancy centers, shelters and foster care organizations. As Rose would say, “There’s just something so special about having something that’s clean and new”.

Rose was a spiritual inspiration and a wonderful mother, mother-in-law, and grand-mother. But most of all, she was an example of living a life that was pleasing to her Lord. How we love you Rosie.