Michael Raymond Yates' Obituary
Michael Raymond Yates was born in Meridian Mississippi on March 29, 1947 to Frank and Sarah Yates. The second sibling of 5, Michael spent his childhood in Meridian where he attended both elementary and middle school. Michael had a lot of friends growing up and was known for being a very active boy, soon earning the knickname, "Rowdy". While in the Mississippi school system he was involved in many school activities and club including the drama team and student counsel. Following middle school, Michaels family moved to Salem Oregon where he attended South Salem High school. As in Mississippi, Michael was involved in many activities at South including being a successful member of the school debate team. MIchael was named to student body office serving as Secretary. Following his graduation from high school, Michael enlisted with the Army and was enrolled in the military's Chinese language school before being deployed to the Vietnam War where he worked for Army intelligence. Michael was in Vietnam for nearly a year working as a radio traffic analysis. Following Vietnam, Michael served two more tours beginning in Taiwan and ending in Ethiopia. He was honorably discharged at the rank of E5 sergeant. Michael's civilian professional career included working in the Tech industry for nearly 20 years. For the last 17 years Michael worked for the North Salem Fred Meyer as a clerk in the electrical department. Michael found this job extremely rewarding and uplifting due to the many return customers who would frequently visit just to say, " hello."
Michael was a fan of anything that had wheels. He had many different cars in his life. He was very skilled at working and maintaining cars. He was also known to occasionally drag race a time or two...never loosing. Aside from owning cars he also was fan of racing. His favorite racing sport was Drag Racing, however, his favorite sports hero was Nascar's, Richard Petty. Of course, his favorite movie was Disney's, Cars.
As a single parent of one, Michael was great family man and grandpa. He is survived by his only daughter, Alicia. Along with her husband, Jay and their daughter, Brooke, Michael was a constant supportive presence in the home who vacationed often with his family. His skills at debate were legendary at home and our families best moments often times were the results of very deep, opinionated and extremely respected dialogs that would last sometimes five hours into the late night. He had the heart of a child and was giving to a fault. He will always be remembered by his family as Dad and Papa. He was extremely loved and will be deeply missed.
On April 28, 2015, Michael passed away as a result from complications related to Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He was 68. Please join us in his celebration of life on June 29, 2015 at 10:30am at the Willamette National Cemetery
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