Martha Gragg Bates Obituary

Martha Gragg Bates, 101, passed away peacefully Saturday, September 6, 2025 at home in Quincy, Florida.  She was born at her family home, Pomegranate Hall, in Sparta, Georgia on January 10, 1924 to Earl Adolphous Gragg and Ruby Oliver Gragg. She lived in Bainbridge, Georgia and graduated from Bainbridge High School.  During the summer of 1941, while at a house party on Panama City Beach, she and her friends ran into a group of young men from Quincy.  It was there that Martha first met George Bates, who would later become her husband.  They hit it off, and he asked her out to lunch at “Emerald Crest”, but they didn’t see each other again for 6 years.  George returned to Emory University for his junior year, and Martha began her freshman year at Wesleyan College.
After graduating from Wesleyan with a degree in Psychology, she taught at elementary schools in Newnan and Blackshear, GA and Lake City, FL. George had returned to Quincy after serving in the Navy during WW2, and when he found out Martha had not married, he got in touch with her, and they started dating.  Rumor has it that George’s brother, Mort, happened to run into her school principal who mentioned that she was about to be married.  That news, which wasn’t true, motivated George to drive down to the University of Florida where she was taking a summer class, and he proposed to her.  She immediately knew she would say “yes” but made him wait a couple of days before giving her answer.  They married on October 29, 1949, in Bainbridge, and she moved to Quincy.
Martha loved living in Quincy where she raised her two children, Mark and Nancy.  She got involved playing bridge and golf, enjoyed gardening, and was an active member of Centenary United Methodist Church.  After she and George became empty nesters, they enjoyed traveling abroad together until his unexpected death in 1981, just before his 59^th birthday.  Always loving the beach, she purchased a condo on Panama City Beach, entertaining bridge friends and family over the years.  It was her “happy place”.
Martha had always enjoyed gardening, and later in life started a rose garden which gave her the pleasure of fresh-cut roses in her house, and the pleasure of sharing them with friends.  She became interested in bird watching and was pleased to see red cardinals at the feeder as she believed them to represent a heavenly visit from her beloved George.
Martha was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, and her sister Sara Gragg Willis.  She is survived by her two children; Mark Bates (Patsy) and Nancy Lloyd (Larry); her grandchildren John Bates (Alexandria), Julia Bates, Amanda Aiken (Derek), Emily Veldkamp (Berend), Robert Curley (Daniela); and her great grandchildren Hala Ann, Julip, and Elby Bates, Ansley and Jackson Aiken, Thomas and Martha Jane Veldkamp. The family is grateful for her devoted caregivers Cynthia McMillian, Sharon McCloud and Charlene Bell.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, September 13, 2025, at Centenary United Methodist Church in Quincy.  The family will receive friends prior to the service at 10 a.m. in the Church Parlor.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Centenary United Methodist Church, 206 North Madison Street, Quincy FL  32351 or Big Bend Hospice, 1723 Mahan Center Blvd, Tallahassee, FL 32308.
Charles McClellan Funeral Home, Quincy, FL., is in charge of arrangements.