Norma Lucille Spinks Pate

Services for Norma Lucille Spinks Pate, 95, of Gladewater will be 2:00 p.m. Monday, March 20, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Gladewater with Brother Bailey Harris and Brother Jim Thompson officiating. Interment will follow at the East Mountain Cemetery. The family will receive friends Monday afternoon from 1:00 p.m. until service time at the church. Mrs. Pate passed away Wednesday, March 15, 2017, in Longview.

Mrs. Pate was born June 10, 1921, near Lawhon, Louisiana to the late Winford John Spinks and Ava Evans Spinks. She graduated from Jamestown High School, a wooden-frame structure built by her grandfather, Joe Evans, and his brother Bill. She attended Louisiana State Normal College in Natchitoches on an NYA scholarship, where she studied art under Olive Long Cooper. While attending school, she worked in Mrs. Cooper’s office and the dining hall, and was a member of the BSU and the Women’s Glee Club.

During WWII, she worked in a defense plant making antiaircraft shells. She met Staff Sgt. Aubrey Pate after his service in Panama. They were married on June 9, 1944 in Thomasville, Georgia, where he was stationed at the Thomasville Air Force Base. After the war, they bought farmland near Heflin, Louisiana where they raised cotton and cattle, and Aubrey worked in construction.

In 1953, her husband surrendered to God’s call to preach. He was ordained at Bistineau Baptist Church in Heflin, LA, in 1955. Norma assisted Aubrey as he served in the congregations at Clarence and at Trees, LA, before moving their family to East Texas in 1965, where they served at East Mountain Baptist Church for almost 20 years. While serving at East Mountain, they were given the opportunity to tour the Holy Land in 1970, where they visited a dear friend, Mavis Pate, a missionary nurse and operating room supervisor in Gaza Baptist Hospital. Over the years, they were privileged to minister on seven trips to the Rio Grande Valley with other members of their congregation. Norma and her Sunday School Class published a newsletter called “Letters from Home”, which they mailed to all the East Mountain boys wherever they were stationed during the Vietnam War.

After retiring from East Mountain, they joined First Baptist Church of Gladewater. Later, Aubrey was called to be the Minister to Senior Adults. Norma and Aubrey worked as a team in this position for 17 years. It was a blessing indeed. Norma called them the Sterling Silver Saints and the Royal Seniority. Over the years, the couple organized many events for the senior adults. On an anniversary of Pearl Harbor, they honored the World War II Veterans with a church-wide banquet, where Veterans were given plaques expressing appreciation for their service to our country. With the help of Frances Cox, Norma published a Sr. Adult newsletter that was mailed to each of the senior’s homes. Norma and Aubrey accompanied members of the congregation on seven mission trips into the area of Copper Canyon in Old Mexico.

Norma had many interests. She enjoyed painting with watercolors, writing poetry, growing and arranging flowers and rocking babies while singing lullabies. She was passionately Pro-Life. Each congregation where they served loved their pastor and his family and they were dearly loved in return. Norma cried each time they moved. She was proud that her husband served his country in World War II and that both her son and son-in-law served in Vietnam.

Norma is survived by her son Michael Pate of North San Juan, CA; daughter and son-in-law Marla and Bobby Stewart of East Mountain; granddaughter Joy Pate of North San Juan, CA; four grandsons David Blackard of Louisville, KY, Freedom Pate of North San Juan, CA, Josh Stewart of East Mountain and Moon Pate of North San Juan, CA; two great grandchildren Sami Rose Pate of Albuquerque, NM and Jeremy Stewart of East Mountain; daughter-in-law Pratiti Beldner; two sisters-in-law Neoma Spinks of Lake Dallas and Helen Pate of Ringgold, LA as well as many other loving family and friends.

She is preceded in death by her parents, a brother Ray Spinks and her husband and partner of 68 years Aubrey Pate