BOLTON LANDING --- Dawn Kathleen (Gates) Macey, 90, passed away at Westmount Health Facility in Queensbury, NY at 10 p.m. on Wednesday July 23rd, 2014.


Dawn was born in Rutland, VT on June 24, 1924, to Elmer F. "Bob" Preston of Rutland, VT and Kathleen Towers Preston of Castleton, VT. Her family moved to Glens Falls, and at the age of thirteen she moved to Bolton to live with her aunt Pauline Towers Gates and Walter Ferris "Smokey" Gates in Bolton's Huddle district. She attended Bolton Central School, graduated in 1942 and continued her studies by attending the Rutland Vermont Nurses Training School.


During World War II, Dawn married William Beckers Gates of Bolton. Their wedding ceremony was held in 1944 in Castleton, VT. In 1949 Dawn and Bill opened the popular "Bill Gates Diner" on Bolton Landing's Main Street and ran it until they retired in 1981. She loved her local friends and summer customers who came to the diner and remained friends with them all her life. Their 1895 trolley car diner was later donated by family friends to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. After thirteen years on display, it is now on loan to the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum in Plattsburgh, NY.


Following retirement, Dawn, who enjoyed painting all her life, worked on her art work, as well as volunteered at the Bolton Historical Museum, was a member of the Glens Falls Hospital Guild and participated in Bolton's Book Club. She loved her four grandchildren and proudly spoke of them often.


Dawn was predeceased by her parents Kathleen Towers Blackbird and Elmer "Bob" Preston, her two sisters Rosemary Preston and Regina Preston (who died at early ages), her husband of forty-five years William Beckers Gates, her daughter Jeanine Marie Gates Garnsey, and her second husband Lawrence Macey.


She is survived by her two sons William Preston Gates and his partner Ellen Schnorr of Bolton and Queensbury, and Walter Edward "Bud" Gates and his wife Toni Gates of Wichita, KS and Bolton. Dawn has four grandchildren, Michael Shane Gates of New York City, Allison Karen Gates of Syracuse, Lindsey Gates Quinn and her husband David Quinn of Slingerlands, NY and Bolton, Ryan Walter Gates and his wife Kate Van Steenhuyse of Wichita, KS and three great grandsons, Jake Gates McKinley, Maxwell Vincent Gates and Dodge Raphael Gates.


A celebration of Dawn's life with refreshments will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday August 2nd at the Bolton Community Center (former Conservation Club) on Edgecomb Pond Road. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in her name to "Bolton Central School, c/o Dawn Gates Art Award," P.O. Box 120, Bolton Landing, NY 12814. A private family burial will take place at the Bolton Rural Cemetery in the Huddle.

Condolences may be mailed to Maynard D. Baker Funeral Home, 11 Lafayette St., Queensbury, NY 12804, or e-mailed through www.bakerfuneralhome.com.