Virginia Dell Gates

Funeral services for Virginia Dell Gates age 79 of Hebert will be held 10:30 AM Tuesday November 2, 2021 from the sanctuary of Hebert United Methodist Church with Rev. Robbie Robertson and Rev. Amanda Carpenter officiating. Bro. Randy Hatten will be in charge of the graveside services which will be at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Pineville under direction of Riser & Son Funeral Home of Columbia. The Gates family will receive visitors on Tuesday at the church from 9:00 AM until time of service.

Virginia Dell Gates was born on May 29, 1942 at Monroe, LA to the union of her parents, Effen S. “Dick” Hendrix and Navy Gay Douglas Hendrix and she passed from this life on October 29, 2021 at the Haven Nursing Center in Columbia. She was preceded in death by her parents and by her brother, Carey Hendrix.

Mrs. Gates was no stranger to hard work and she began at a very early age . Her first job was delivering vegetables for a local farmer to his customers in the neighborhood on her bicycle. She also mowed her grandmother Hendrix's yard. She graded papers and baby sat. Several years later she worked for Woolworths, Morgan & Lindsey and the Palace Department Store, part time when she was in college at Northeast Louisiana University where she obtained her Masters Degree in Elementary Education. She spent the bulk of her career as a school teacher teaching first and second grades, and taught for some twenty years at Pollock Elementary School . After she retired from elementary education she taught in numerous prisons including the Jena Prison, and Louisiana Training Institute for girls. After her prision teaching she taught Adult Education in Caldwell Parish. She loved Physical Education in school and loved sports of all type. She was an active member of the Hebert United Methodist Church.

Left to cherish her memory is her daughter Lori Rios and son-in-law Todd Rios, and her special friend Judith Ann McKee.