Lorene (Thomason) Coates

Lorene Thomason Coates of Gheen Road, Salisbury, NC peacefully passed over to Heaven's shore while at her home on the morning of June 15, 2025. She was 89 years old. Lorene lived a full, abundant life to the very end. She enjoyed good health, continued living independently, and did whatever she chose daily.

Lorene was born on Jan. 13, 1936. The oldest of four children,  she was the daughter of Junius L. Thomason and Mary Belle Hoffman.

She graduated as Valediction from Woodleaf School in 1954 where she was also an All-County Girls Basketball player. Her parents taught her the value of hard work, discipline, endurance, and a love for the Lord which she never forgot.

She worked for more than forty years for the ASCS Office and Farm Service Agency of the Department of Agriculture. She began as a Program Assistant, and after eighteen months, she was promoted to Chief Clerk. Eighteen years later she became the County Executive Director. In 1995 she became a District Director and served in that position until her retirement. She hosted a weekly radio show and wrote a newspaper column in the Salisbury Post for twenty years. After her appointment as an instructor for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), she traveled the country training all ASCS Employees on EEO, Sexual Harassment, and Civil Rights. She always maintained that "the best job I ever had was working with the farmers of Rowan County."

Following her retirement, she was elected as a Democrat to the NC General Assembly in 2001, serving until 2011. There she fought for the people of Rowan County and enjoyed bipartisan support. She retired from public office at the age of seventy-five.

Mrs. Coates was active in her church and community. She served as Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Secretary of Rowan Helping Ministries, was elected President of the Altrusa Club, and won the Outstanding Community Service for North Carolina and the Southeast Area for the FSA Employees organization.

A faithful member of Bethel Lutheran Church her entire life, she taught Sunday School and was a member of the Church Council. She loved God and her church. She raised her daughters to love God as well. 

Lorene was preceded in death by her parents, two younger siblings, Ruth T. Eagle and Lloyd Ray Thomason, and her husband of fifty-nine years, Floyd Eugene Coates of Spencer. She leaves behind her daughters, Renee Coates Scheidt and Cheryl D. Waggener; her grandchildren, Nicole Scheidt Gardner (Jason D. Gardner), Tara Scheidt Fung (Jonathan Fung), and Justin Waggener; her sister, Gail Thomason Mullenax; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Her greatest joy during her later years was being "Mammaw" to four great-grandchildren, Dales Gardner, Amelia (Millie) Gardner, Charlie Gardner, and Brynne Rose Gardner. She will be greatly missed.

The family will receive friends at Bethel Lutheran Church, 355 East Ridge Road, Salisbury, on Sunday, June 22, 2025 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, followed by the funeral service at 3:00 PM. The burial will be in the church cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to Bethel Lutheran Church. "Well Done, good and faithful Servant... Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Lyerly Funeral Home is serving the family.

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