Mary Elizabeth ‘Sunnie' Bates, TV pioneer and advocate of women's rights

By Laura Berrios

For the AJC

Sunnie Bates had a distinguished career as a pioneer in television, her husband said, but she also was a lifelong advocate for women’s rights.

“She was very politically savvy,” said husband Woody Bates of Roswell, a retired vice president with the Coca-Cola Co.

Mr. Bates noted his wife’s 50-year involvement with the League of Women Voters, serving on local and state boards in New York, Connecticut and Georgia. She was active recently, both nationally and in Georgia, with political action committees dedicated to electing Democratic women.

“She had a lot of passion for politics,” longtime friend Keiko Butler of Roswell said.

Mrs. Bates wanted to make sure others voted, so she regularly volunteered as a poll worker, her friend said.

Even when the weather was cold, the octogenarian, whose left arm was paralyzed due to cancer treatments in the early 1970s, didn’t mind working long hours at the polls, Mrs. Butler said.

Mary Elizabeth “Sunnie” Bates died July 10 of heart failure while under hospice care at her home in Roswell. She was 84. A memorial service is being planned for early September, her husband said. Wages and Sons Funeral Home and Crematories was in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Bates was born and educated in Roanoke, Va., where she graduated from William Fleming High School and Roanoke College.

She was nicknamed “Sunnie” early in life because of her cheerful disposition, her husband said.

Mrs. Bates had numerous jobs in her early adult years, but her consistent political activism led to a career in broadcasting in the 1950s and early ’60s, according to her husband.

He said his wife co-produced a daily television news show for WRGB in Schenectady, N.Y.

In 1960, she was presented with the McCall’s Gold Mike -- the highest honor given to a female broadcaster at the time -- by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, Mr. Bates said.

She kept a framed photo of that presentation, and other photos of herself with notable celebrities and political figures, such as Nancy and Ronald Reagan, in her home, her husband said.

Mrs. Bates left her television career in 1962 to move to Atlanta and get married.

In Atlanta Mrs. Bates continued her involvement with the League of Women Voters, and was also a founding member and former executive director of Atlanta Planned Parenthood.

Later in life, her interests focused on Japan. The Bateses visited the country numerous times, and were active with the Japanese community in Georgia. They formerly lived in a traditional Sukiya-styled Japanese home in Buckhead that was filled with Japanese artifacts and a collection of more than 5,000 books on Japan, friends and family said.

Mrs. Bates was an early member of a conversation group formed to help young Japanese women adjust to American culture, said Josephine Maloney of Dunwoody, who started the group in 1991.

Mrs. Bates also took Japanese language classes at Georgia Perimeter College, Mrs. Maloney said.

“She knew about Japanese culture in depth and was very passionate about it,” said Mrs. Butler, also a member of the group.

Other survivors include a daughter, Jill Jennings of Woodstock; three sons, Jack Jennings of Valley Village, Calif., Geoffrey Bates of Chicago and Christopher Bates of Taipei, Taiwan; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.