William Spencer Yates

William (Bill) Spencer Yates went to be with the Lord in the early hours on Monday, May 22, 2023. He leaves behind 1 wife, 2 daughters, 3 granddaughters and a very fat dog. William was ( for no logical reason) named Ollie by his eldest granddaughter and over time his wife and daughters adopted the name. Henceforth, William and Emma became Ollie and Ola to the entire family. Ollie leaves behind thousands of home videos, shot with his iPad on every occasion. Just this week, we stumbled upon a video he made of the toilet bowl cleaner, evidence that absolutely anything qualified to Ollie as being video-worthy. His legacy will live on for generations through his infamous one-liners including, but not limited to: "It's like old times, Eedee." "I'm so po', I can only spell it with one 'O'." "Look at you, look at me, oh Lord". "I'm old, fat and ugly." "Make lots of hundreds!" Ollie taught his daughters and granddaughters about Jesus and could be found watching Swaggert just about any time. He also loved the Gather Vocal Band. While he never graduated from college himself, he knew the value of education. He and Ola did without the fancy things in life in order to send Amy and Amanda to private school and later, to Texas A&M University in College Station. He was a proud Aggie Dad. An early Tech adopter, he was always ahead of his time when it came to learning new forms of Technology. He made sure his daughters took computer classes to learn DOS, WordPerfect and Lotus Notes before most people knew what any of those things were. He enjoyed music and was downloading MP3 files before anyone knew what an MP3 was. He taught himself to burn a CD and eventually expanded his skills to designing custom CD covers for friends and family. He later moved onto live streaming church services for his church. One of hs favorite hobbies was publishing a regular newsletter for a few of his favorite missionaries. He would use every color of the rainbow and no font was off limits. He would spend hundreds of hours on these newsletters, getting so much joy from work. Ollie loved foot long cheese conies from Sonic and Fletcher's corny dogs. He was a fan of Diet Cherry Coke and Diet Rite. He would shamelessly send his children and later, his grandchildren, through separate check-out lines at the grocery store when there was a sale with a limit. A lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys, he never missed a game. He and Amanda could be found loudly rooting for their team on any Sunday afternoon or Monday night. And boy, were they loud! Ollie, always doing the Lord's work, thoughtfully reminded the preacher on Sunday's that the Cowboys kick-off was at noon. He was also a dedicated Dallas Stars fan and rarely miss the "puck-off". Yes, he made that term up himself. Ollie disliked crowds of people, despite referring to himself as a regular "party animal". During family parties, he could be found in his bedroom, escaping the crowds and preferring the quiet. He always made a brief appearance when the food was ready, unless he could convince one of his daughters or granddaughters to snag some for him. Ollie self-identified as being weird and no one has ever disagreed with him. In addition to being weird, he fiercely loved his family. He was everybody's favorite person to share good news with - he loved to delight in our wins. No one was more excited about a good grade, a promotion or an award than Ollie. He made Makayla feel like an Olympic champion with every good grade and Faith was a magnificent hero for every pound she gained. Olivia was an all star winner for just brushing her hair. His oldest brother was his best friend and they talked almost every day. Together, they loved nothing more than to reminisce about the good 'ol days, He was a proud Grove-ite and enjoyed telling us tales of growing up with Little Man and Shep. He liked to brag that Ola made straight A's in school and he would tell all of us that being married to her for 51 years was the smartest thing he ever did. We all agree. We know we will see him again one day. In the meantime, we'll keep making hundreds and keep remembering the good 'ol days we spent with him. Rest in peace, dear Ollie. We will love you forever.