Robert Wayne Yates was named for his father Robert Cornelius Yates and maternal grandfather Daniel Wayne Yeager (1835-1910). Wayne graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1928 and became a successful salesman at Fowler Buick. He courted Frances Willis Redding of Terry, MS, while she attended Mississippi Woman's College (now William Carey College), and they eloped and married on 30 May 1936 upon her graduation. Wayne joined the Army Air Force during WW2 and was stationed in New Foundland. Returning to Hattiesburg after the war, he operated a newsstand and tavern before moving to Jackson, MS, to manage a large bowling alley on East Pearl Street, and he became active in the Exchange Club. A few years later he and Frances relocated to Grand Prairie, Texas, where they operated a bowling alley, then to Midland, Texas, where he sold office equipment. They moved back to Mississippi, settling in Gautier on the coast about 1965 and going into the real estate business, first as the Smith-Yates Agency, then The Property Shop in Pascagoula. Wayne was an avid golfer and Shriner.
Robert Wayne Yates was named for his father Robert Cornelius Yates and maternal grandfather Daniel Wayne Yeager (1835-1910). Wayne graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1928 and became a successful salesman at Fowler Buick. He courted Frances Willis Redding of Terry, MS, while she attended Mississippi Woman's College (now William Carey College), and they eloped and married on 30 May 1936 upon her graduation. Wayne joined the Army Air Force during WW2 and was stationed in New Foundland. Returning to Hattiesburg after the war, he operated a newsstand and tavern before moving to Jackson, MS, to manage a large bowling alley on East Pearl Street, and he became active in the Exchange Club. A few years later he and Frances relocated to Grand Prairie, Texas, where they operated a bowling alley, then to Midland, Texas, where he sold office equipment. They moved back to Mississippi, settling in Gautier on the coast about 1965 and going into the real estate business, first as the Smith-Yates Agency, then The Property Shop in Pascagoula. Wayne was an avid golfer and Shriner.
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