FORT PIERCE FOLKS
The UNDERTAKER
In his professional career, Bill Yates is best known as a funeral director ministering to those dealing with the loss of a loved one. But friends know him best
for his fishing and hunting talents.
BY GLORIA TAYLOR WEINBERG
Growing up surrounded by death gave Bill Yates a
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deep reverence for life.
The room in which he now counsels mourners
was once in his family’s apartment adjacent to the
GLORIA TAYLOR WEINBERG
funeral parlor his father founded in 1943.
“I learned at a very young age that you didn’t run through
the house and yell or slam doors,” says Yates, 66, a Fort Pierce
native who took over as funeral director after his father, Joe,
died in 1965.
Bill sold Yates Funeral Home & Crematory three years ago,
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