January 25, 2024, 81, Garner —

Audrey Gardner Coates, 81, a long-time resident of Garner, passed away early Thursday morning, January 25, 2024, at Wake Medical Center in Raleigh.

She had assisted her late husband, Troy C. Coates, in the operation of Coates Heating and Air, Inc. in Garner.

Mrs. Coates was a native of the Calypso area and was a 1962 graduate of North Duplin High School.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents, Rudolph “Doc’ Gardner and Bertha Faircloth Gardner; a brother, Billy Rudolph Gardner; two sisters and their husbands, Jo Ann and Dennis Poythress, and Evelyn and Garland Starnes;  a niece and two nephews.

Funeral arrangements are pending at this time.

Mrs. Coates is survived by her son, Micheal Coates, and wife, Kimberly Suggs Coates, of Clayton; a daughter, Sheila Coates McNamara and husband, Greg, of Clayton; three grandsons, Ryan McNamara, Bradley McNamara, and Zachary Coates.