Guy Coates
| Ernest Guy Coates, Jr.
(Long-time Associated Press correspondent) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | June 28, 1940 Monroe, Louisiana | ||
| Died | January 12, 2021 (aged 80) Baton Rouge, Louisiana | ||
| Spouse | Name of first wife missing Jonica M. Coates | ||
'Ernest Guy Coates, Jr., known as Guy Coates (June 28, 1940 – January 12, 2021), was a journalist a 40-year correspondent for the Associated Press in his native Louisiana.[2]
Born in Monroe, he graduated from what is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He worked first for The Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller Times, then The Shreveport Times, and the CBS television affiliates KNOE in Monroe and KSLA in Shreveport. He joined the AP in New Orleans in 1968; five years later he was named the AP bureau chief at the AP's bureau at the state Capitol in Baton Rouge. He covered the activities of six Louisiana governor, Jimmie Davis, John J. McKeithen, Edwin Edwards, David C. Treen, Buddy Roemer, and Mike Foster. He reported on dozens of legislative sessions and countless political campaigns. He became an expert on Louisiana politics and provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 1973 convention that led to a new state constitution in 1974. He held public officials accountable with his tough questioning. Former United States Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat called Coates "one of Louisiana's finest reporters." In addition to political matters, he reported on a sniper in New Orleans, Hurricane Camille in coastal Mississippi in 1969, and floods and prison riots. He was a mentor to young reporters, Each week, he published a column on Louisiana politics and government that often featured the homespun observations of a fictional friendhe called "Jethro Rotheschild."[3]
Coates was married for thirty-nine years until his death to Jonica Coates. He had four children from a previous marriage, Guy Coates, III, Jennifer Anne Coates, and Rebecca Riviello and her husband, Albert, all of Orlando, Florida, and Wilma Bell and her husband, Tim, of Sugar Hill, Georgia. He had four grandchildren: Leah, Blaine and Grace Bell and Ryan Riviello. There was no funeral service because his death came near the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.[3]
