Obit of Oates, Robert (o320) - Unknown County, Oklahoma

Submitted by:  Gene Phillips <okarchives@comcast.net>  18 Aug 2004
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ROBERT OATES
Published on February 6, 2003
The Santa Rosa Press Democratt

A hobo who rode the rails during the Great Depression and then climbed 
into the boxing ring, Robert Oates struck it rich in the dry cleaning 
business and spent the last 30 years of his life as a Rohnert Park real 
estate agent.

Oates, a World War II veteran who rose from the squalor of childhood in a 
migrant worker tent city, died Monday of emphysema at a Santa Rosa 
hospital. He was 89.

Oates, who quit school in sixth grade, personified the American ideal that 
hard work pays off, said his son, Robert "Buck" Oates of Cotati.

"He was a self-made man," Buck Oates said. "He just worked really hard."

Even in his early 80s, Oates worked in real estate and volunteered to 
deliver meals to seniors, his son said.

He died peacefully, surrounded by family.

The anecdotes of Oates' colorful life are plentiful, his son said.

Born in Los Angeles, he moved back to Oklahoma with his migrant worker 
family in the "Grapes of Wrath" era. When Oates came home from school one 
day, he found an empty tent, a horse and a note that said his family had 
moved 200 miles away.

He rode the horse two days to find them, his son said.

Oates quit school to help support his family, joining his siblings in 
distributing whisky his father made in an illegal still.

When he was 15, Oates lied about his age and joined the Army. Biplanes had 
captured the nation's interest, and when a sergeant asked who wanted to be 
a pilot, Oates and a few other recruits stepped forward.

The sergeant handed them shovels and said, "Pile it here, pile it there."

Booted out of the Army for being underage, Oates took to a hobo's life, 
crisscrossing the country on trains and dodging the notorious railroad 
police, known as "bulls."

He learned the hobo trick of strapping his belt around a rail beneath a 
boxcar to ride hundreds of miles undetected, his son said.

In his early 20s, Oates traded boxcars for boxing gloves, competing in 
Golden Gloves amateur competition in San Francisco. His lone pro fight as 
a heavyweight was a resounding loss. "He didn't make it out of the second 
round," his son said.

During World War II, he volunteered for the Army and drove heavy 
equipment.

In Los Angeles, Oates went to work at an uncle's dry cleaning business and 
wound up buying a cleaning business in Alameda in the 1940s. He prospered, 
bought real estate in the Bay Area, and moved to Rohnert Park in the early 
1970s.

Oates was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Alameda.

In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter, Nancy Iam Montoya of 
Hayward; five grandchildren; numerous great-grandchildren; and four nieces 
and nephews.

Visitation will be from noon to 8 p.m. todayat Abby Chapel of the Redwoods 
Mortuary, 6250 State Farm Drive, Rohnert Park. Graveside services in San 
Jose will be private.

A public celebration of Oates' life will be from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday 
at the Washoe House, at Roblar Road and Stony Point Road near Cotati.

"He just wanted everyone to have a toast of bourbon to him," his son said.
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