ROCKDALE — Services for Etta V. Gates, 94, of Rockdale will be 11 a.m., today at Pecan Street Church of Christ in Rockdale.

Burial will be in New Oak Lawn Cemetery in Rockdale.

Mrs. Gates was died Saturday, March 15 in a local nursing home.

She was born Feb. 5, 1914 to Lenard and Rosetta Bell Marion in Burleson County. She married James Morrison (deceased, 1936). On March 31, 1941, she married Clyde Gates (deceased, 1985) in Lee County. She was a homemaker. She is a member of Pecan Street Church of Christ in Rockdale and has lived there since 1985. Preceded in death by a son, James Morrison and a daughter, Willie Lee Burks.

Survivors include a daughter, Vivian Wilburn of Rockdale; and a sister, Lillie Mae Dotray of San Antonio.

Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home in Rockdale is in charge of arrangements.

Col. William C. Wilson Jr. U.S. Air Force Ret.

Graveside services for retired Col. William C. Wilson Jr., U.S. Air Force, 85, of Temple, will be 3 p.m., today in Bellwood Memorial Park with the Rev. Jimmy Hinton officiating.

Col. Wilson died Thursday at his home.

He was born July 22, 1922 on a tenant farm in Bell county and grew up picking cotton during the Great Depression. He graduated from Academy High School in 1939 and started at Temple College sweeping floors there at night to help pay for tuition. He worked in California as a riveter in a factory making B-25’s, then returned to Bell County and joined the U.S. Army in 1942. He became a pilot and was trained to fly B-26’s and A-26’s and just missed service in the Pacific theatre when the atomic bombs were dropped, stopping his deployment. After the war he spent time in Germany and briefly flew a C-47 in the Berlin Airlift. He retired as a Colonel in 1974 after serving more than 32 years in the U.S. Air Force. He earned a master’s degree from Texas Christian University.

Survivors include his wife, Inus Hargrove Wilson of 58 years of Temple; a son, Jeffrey Wilson of Killeen; a daughter, Margaret Wilson of Belton; and a brother, Robert Milton “Punk” Wilson of Belton.

Scanio-Harper Funeral Home in Temple is in charge of arrangements.