Edna "Myra" E. Kates Dobbs Ferry, New York Obituary

Edna "Myra" E. Kates

EDNA E. KATES Longtime Hastings-on-Hudson resident Edna E. Myra Kates, a former member of the board of directors of St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers and a survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, died Wednesday 4/29/15 at Westchester County Medical Center. She was 93. The cause of death was a heart attack. Mrs. Kates was 20 years old and the wife of a U.S. Army Infantry company commander stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. As enemy pilots strafed her house, she rescued a friend's baby daughter and raced with her to safety under heavy gunfire. "Jap pilots tried to machine gun her as she ran for cover with an eight-months-old baby," the Long Island Star Journal reported shortly afterwards, "and she huddled beneath an iron cot in the officers' brick barracks throughout the raid." "Bullets were flying," she told the reporter. "I was lucky. I was so busy caring for that baby and trying to protect it I forgot to be frightened…." Born in Flushing, Queens, in 1921, Mrs. Kates was a 1939 graduate of Flushing High School. She was married in 1940 to Charles O. Kates, a career Army officer, author and humorist, whose syndicated comic strip, "Honeybelle," ran in newspapers across the country from 1948-1952. He died in 1992. Mrs. Kates worked briefly as a dance instructor, then as a hospital laboratory technician on New York City's Welfare Island during World War II. After moving to Hastings with her family in 1961, she joined the St. John's Riverside Hospital auxiliary. In more than 40 years as a volunteer there, she served as president of the auxiliary and a member of the hospital board of directors. During the 1960s and '70s, she was the managing editor of Standard Press Association, a family-owned newspaper features syndicate, for which she wrote cooking columns, horoscopes and brief articles on U.S. history. She was a member for many years of the Fortnightly Club, a Yonkers group devoted to the study of American history. She is survived by her son, Brian, of Pomona, N.Y., and granddaughter, Elizabeth Kates, of Dobbs Ferry. Funeral Friday 10:30 am Edwards-Dowdle Funeral Home. Visiting Thursday 2-4 & 7-9 pm. Memorials in lieu of flowers to St. John's Riverside Hospital Auxiliary, 967 N. Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701 appreciated.
April 29, 201504/29/2015
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EDNA E. KATES Longtime Hastings-on-Hudson resident Edna E. Myra Kates, a former member of the board of directors of St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers and a survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, died Wednesday 4/29/15 at Westchester County Medical Center. She was 93. The cause of death was a heart attack. Mrs. Kates was 20 years old and the wife of a U.S. Army Infantry company commander stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. As enemy pilots strafed her house, she rescued a friend's baby daughter and raced with her to safety under heavy gunfire. "Jap pilots tried to machine gun her as she ran for cover with an eight-months-old baby," the Long Island Star Journal reported shortly afterwards, "and she huddled beneath an iron cot in the officers' brick barracks throughout the raid." "Bullets were flying," she told the reporter. "I was lucky. I was so busy caring for that baby and trying to protect it I forgot to be frightened…." Born in Flushing, Queens, in 1921, Mrs. Kates was a 1939 graduate of Flushing High School. She was married in 1940 to Charles O. Kates, a career Army officer, author and humorist, whose syndicated comic strip, "Honeybelle," ran in newspapers across the country from 1948-1952. He died in 1992. Mrs. Kates worked briefly as a dance instructor, then as a hospital laboratory technician on New York City's Welfare Island during World War II. After moving to Hastings with her family in 1961, she joined the St. John's Riverside Hospital auxiliary. In more than 40 years as a volunteer there, she served as president of the auxiliary and a member of the hospital board of directors. During the 1960s and '70s, she was the managing editor of Standard Press Association, a family-owned newspaper features syndicate, for which she wrote cooking columns, horoscopes and brief articles on U.S. history. She was a member for many years of the Fortnightly Club, a Yonkers group devoted to the study of American history. She is survived by her son, Brian, of Pomona, N.Y., and granddaughter, Elizabeth Kates, of Dobbs Ferry. Funeral Friday 10:30 am Edwards-Dowdle Funeral Home. Visiting Thursday 2-4 & 7-9 pm. Memorials in lieu of flowers to St. John's Riverside Hospital Auxiliary, 967 N. Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701 appreciated.

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