Rose Cates
Rose Lee Riewe Cates, 97, passed away Sunday, March 10, 2024.
Services were Saturday, March 16, at Comanche Funeral Home Chapel. Burial was in White Point Cemetery.
Rose was born Feb. 14, 1927, in Hamilton County to Theodore and Lillie Riewe. She was baptized, confirmed and married in Immanuel Lutheran Church, Pottsville. Rose graduated from Hamilton High School.
On Nov. 12, 1946, she married Foy L. Cates, and this union lasted 68 years until his passing Dec. 27, 2014.
After graduation from high school, Rose started nursing school while working at the bank in Hamilton. Foy and Rose moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and then to Dallas, where Rose worked in banking and continued to pursue her nursing career by correspondence school and occasional on-campus classes.
In the years that followed, they moved to Northern California, where Rose worked in aerodynamic electronics, digital instrumentation and building components for the computers used in the first moon landing. During this time, Rose studied aeronautical electronics and instrumentation. She served in a supervisory capacity in a time when that was rare for women.
At the onset of the Korean War, Foy and Rose moved back to Dallas as Foy was in the Marine Reserves and had to return to Dallas for recall. When the Korean War was declared a police action, they returned to California, this time settling in southern California.
Rose eventually went back to college while living in San Diego, California. After graduating, she started a new career in medical technology and radiation technology. They moved back to Texas in 1975, and Rose worked as Chief Technologist, Director of Radiology Department and hospital-wide Quality Control Coordinator at Brownwood. Rose then worked at the Heart of Texas Memorial Hospital in Brady, serving as Director of Radiology, Nuclear Meds, Ultrasound, C.T. and Mammography Departments. She retired in 2001 and went into self-employment as a Quality Assurance Consultant for hospitals and clinics and pursued work in human behavioral science, which was a great interest for her.
Rose officially retired from her long, successful career in 2005. She settled into life with Foy on their property in Comanche. She spent her time caring for Foy, gardening, working in the Altar Guild at church, sketching pictures and architectural drawings, doing needle work and helping care for her sister-in-law in Kerrville.
She is survived by her nephew, Donnie Riewe and fiancé Tonna; nieces Della Hicks and husband James, Carla Davis and husband Greg and Shelia Head and husband Jesse; sister-in-law Iva Dell Hufstutler; numerous great-nieces and -nephews, great-great-nieces and -nephews, cousins and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two brothers, Eric Riewe and Phil Riewe; sister-in-law Evelyn Riewe; niece Phyllis Wells; and nephew Darrell Riewe.
Memorials may be made to Comanche Library or Lutheran Sunset Ministries.
