Barbara Gayle Yates
September 25, 1951 — May 31, 2024
Edenton
Barbara Gayle Yates
Barbara Gayle Yates, born September 25, 1951, in Key West, FL, died Friday, May 31, 2024, at her home in Edenton, NC. Barbara was the only child of Robert H. Yates, Jr, and Garnette Coakley Yates. She was raised to be a free spirit.
After leaving Key West, the family moved to Charleston, SC, before settling in Norfolk, VA, where Barbara spent her early years. While in her early 20’s, her friend Bonnie Malloy asked her to go backpacking through Europe. It was on this fortuitous trip that she learned about the right way to travel and youth hostels, knowledge that would serve her well later in life.
When Barbara returned to Virginia Beach, she met and married Robert S Royster, Jr. Although they loved each other very much, they realized they couldn’t live together.
In 1978, Barbara and her parents purchased a little rooming house, “Angie’s Rooms”, on 24th and Pacific. Together, they turned it into an inn, called “Angie’s Guest Cottage, Bed-and-Breakfast and Youth Hostel”.
After a few years of envying what her hostel guests were doing, Barbara leased Angie’s to her friends, Donna and Paul Lacy, packed her backpack, and took off around the world for nearly 2 years. Afterwards, for several years she would close her business in the winter to travel to distant lands. Her parents said, “Well, we raised her to be independent, but we didn’t expect anything like this.”
Barbara was one of the instrumental players of the Old Beach Defense which was a zoning plan that integrated and protected the old Virginia Beach neighborhood with the new.
After selling the business and retiring in 2005, Barbara decided to leave the Virginia Beach resort area, so she went on a search to find the closest piece of heaven she could, outside of dog heaven. She found her way to Edenton, NC where she unexpectedly discovered the wonderful community of the Cotton Mill Village
Giving back to the Edenton community, Barbara volunteered as a Book Buddy at White Oak Elementary School. Later she and several others took on the task of improving the Tri-County Animal Shelter. The shelter staff and the county commissioners from Chowan, Gates, and Perquimans Counties were nothing but helpful in this endeavor. Short of having a new $3 million shelter, the Tri-County Animal Shelter is in the best shape that the citizens have ever seen. Barbara and her group also joined forces with AWARE to expand the spay and neuter programs, which decreased the intake of animals.
A lifelong dog lover (she’d be the first to say she loved dogs more than people), she lived a full life, always selflessly sharing it with a beloved and pampered dog - most recently Gigi and Tootsie. One of Barbara’s last wishes was for pet owners to become part of the solution of animal overpopulation, and to have their pets spayed or neutered. She also hoped that pet owners would stop using backyard breeders for pet purchases. Barbara would greatly appreciate that any honors or remembrances be done in the form of adoption from your local shelter, or by donations to AWARE (Animal Welfare of the Albemarle Region Everyday), PO Box 203, Hertford, NC 27944, or to the Tri-County Animal Shelter, 138 Icaria Road, Tyner, NC.
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