Jo Ann Hagan Bates, 84

Jo Ann Hagan Bates, age 84, passed away Sunday, January 4, 2026, at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. Visitation will be held Friday, January 9, at Kimbrell-Stern from 1 to 2 p.m. prior to the memorial service at 2 p.m. with Rev. Dr. Butch Knight officiating. A private internment service will take place at Crown Hill Cemetery.

A native of Ocilla, Jo Ann attended school in Camilla and graduated from Swainsboro High School. She attended Emory at Oxford and graduated from the University of Georgia with a BS in Elementary Education and a minor in Library Education. Jo Ann completed graduate work at the University of Georgia obtaining her master’s in media and her Specialist 6th Year Degree in Instructional Technology.

After Jo Ann and Bill’s marriage in 1963, 2nd Lt. Bates’ military assignment took them to Okinawa, where she taught 6th grade at Christ the King International School for two years. While there, she began organizing the first library for the school. They returned to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland for a short tour and then to Osan Air Force Base in Korea for a year. Jo Ann did volunteer work at the Non-Commissioned Officers Club and taught classes at the University of Maryland branch on base. During that time, she lived off base in a Korean house in the village of Osan. After Korea, they were stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL where she was the librarian at two elementary schools. One of the libraries was functional, the other was being completely reorganized. In 1969, they were transferred to Pueblo, CO where Bill taught ROTC at Southern Colorado State College and Jo Ann was assistant librarian at South High School. In 1970, while living in Pueblo, their son William was born. They returned to graduate school in Athens in the fall of 1970 at the end of Bill’s military time. Bill received his Specialist Degree in Educational Administration and Jo Ann worked toward her master’s degree in library education.

In the summer of 1971, they returned to Albany where Jo Ann was a stay-at-home mom until William was in the second grade when she was hired as Media Specialist at Riverview Academy for several years until their daughter, Bronwyn, was born in 1979. In 1981, Jo Ann became Media Specialist at Westover High School until her retirement in 2001. During this time, she attended graduate school through a University of Georgia/Valdosta College co-operative program. Through this program, she received her Master of Education in 1974 and her Specialist of Education in 1986 from the University of Georgia.

Jo Ann was active in Beta Sigma Phi; Great Books reading group; Serendipity Garden Club; Thronateeska Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution; United Daughters of the Confederacy, Dougherty County Chapter No.187; Pierre Robert Chapter of Daughters of the American Colonists; and John Sumner Chapter of Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century. She was an active member of First Baptist Church Albany from 1972 until 2022. Mrs. Bates is preceded in death by her parents, Albert Quincy Hagan, Sr. and Dorris Horton Hagan of Tifton; husband, William Howard Bates, Jr. of Albany; grandparents, Charlie Rawlins Horton and Dora Horne Horton of Herndon; and John Sheppard Hagan and Mary Ann Williams Hagan of Screven County.

Mrs. Bates is survived by her son, William Howard Bates, III and his partner, Emerson Moore of New York, New York; daughter, Bronwyn Georgia Bates and son-in-law, Burt Sorrells of Albany; sister, Mary Hagan (Diane Fischer) of Sacramento, CA; and brother, Al Q. Hagan, Jr. (Linda) of Bogart.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to a favorite charity.

Kimbrell-Stern Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.