William Roy and Pearl Bates Solomon Family

From Pearl Bates Solomon funeral program, May 2010

Birth: Oct. 16, 1919
Clay Springs
Navajo County
Arizona, USA
Death: May 27, 2010

Pearl Bates Solomon died on May 27, 2010.

She was born on October 16, 1919 in Clay Springs, Arizona, to Lyman E. and Margaret Perkins Bates. She had a humble but happy childhood in Clay Springs, Winslow and Taylor. While living in Taylor, at the tender age of sixteen, she was swept off her feet by William Roy Solomon.

Roy and Pearl were married on Leap Year Day, 1936. They lived in Tucson, Winslow and Taylor, Arizona. They were blessed with six sons and two daughters. On April 19, 1951, while Pearl was pregnant with her last child, her sweetheart Roy was involved in a tragic accident in a molding mill in Show Low, Az. He died from the wound he suffered to his side. Pearl struggled to cope with her great loss and with the immense burden of raising her eight children alone.

With the support of family and friends in Taylor and Snowflake, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (of which she was a faithful, lifelong member), Pearl managed to raise her children. She worked hard to provide what she could: sewing clothes, growing gardens and canning food for the family to eat.

She worked at the Taylor School Cafeteria for 15 years and also at the Leland Lillywhite Store in Taylor for several years. She loved genealogy and became educated in Old English, German and Spanish.

She was a genealogy instructor at Northern Pioneer College and was well known in the White Mountains as an expert genealogist.

Pearl is survived by eight children; Carvel (Cleone), Gary (Booby Sue), Curtis, Bill (Rita), Alice (Robert) Franco Anderson, Ronald (Luana), Laree (John Stewart) and Lyman Roy (Lorraine); 54 grandchildren; 134 great-grandchildren (with 3 pending); and seven great-great grandchildren; a brother, Max Bates (Pat), of Camarillo, California; and two sisters, Marjorie Whiting, of Taylor and Anita Schmaltz, of Gallup, New Mexico.

She was preceded in death by her husband, William Roy Solomon, and parents, Lyman E. and Margaret Perkins Bates.