Cornelia Samuel Cates

Cornelia Samuel Cates died on February 16, at the Stonegates Retirement Community, where she had lived for the past ten years. She was 103.

Cornelia was born in New York City to Harriet Diamond Samuel and Alfred Elias Samuel, but moved to Salem, New Jersey, home of her mother’s family, when she was an infant. She grew up there with sister Theodora and brother Walter (both deceased) and returned there after earning an AB at the University of Chattanooga, to teach English at Salem High School, from which she had graduated four years earlier. She met her husband, Haynes Burke Cates, MD, in Salem when he was visiting relatives in the area. They married in Salem in 1942, and Cornelia remained there when Haynes, as part of the US Army Medical Corps, was sent to Europe during World War II. When he returned, they lived in Louisville, KY, while Haynes finished an orthopedic residency. While there, Cornelia did educational therapy at the VA Hospital, and continued graduate work at the University of Louisville that she had begun at the University of Pennsylvania. Haynes and Cornelia settled in Wilmington, Delaware, where they both lived until their deaths (Haynes in 1987).

In Wilmington, Cornelia dedicated her life to her four children, to friends, and to volunteering. She was active in The Women’s Auxiliary of New Castle County where she worked in the library of the former Memorial Hospital, The Medical Auxiliary of Delaware, The Council of New Castle County Art Museum, The Women’s Auxiliary of Christiana Care, The Historical Society of Delaware, The Wilmington Country Club, and Westminster Presbyterian Church. She did everything from being Girl Scout Cookie Chair to advocating for a soccer team at Tower Hill School, so that her sons could play soccer there (she succeeded). Cornelia belonged to several bridge clubs and she and Haynes played couples bridge. They loved to dance and belonged to several dance groups over their married years. After her youngest child left for college, Cornelia began a new chapter in her life as a guide at The Hagley Museum. She did this for over 30 years, well into her nineties, and was honored when she retired. She said that she always enjoyed guiding on holidays when families came to the museum.

Cornelia was an outgoing and empathetic woman who had many friends. She was sweet and kind and had a wonderful sense of humor. When her closest friends passed away, she made new younger friends. She made many friends at Hagley. Her nurses in Health Care at Stonegates were her friends as well, many of whom stopped by in her last days to tell her family how much they loved her.

Cornelia loved her children fiercely and enjoyed being a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She leaves behind: her daughter, Carole Cates Pennock and husband Ted, their sons and families, Christopher Cates Pennock, wife Jennifer Moeller, and children, Wilhelmina Jae In Pennock and Oona Cornelia Pennock, and Alexander Ross Pennock, his wife Erin Camarena, and children Cybil Camarena Pennock, and Felix Camarena Pennock; her daughter Susan Haynes Cates and husband Michael Gery; her son Haynes Burke Cates, Jr. MD, and sons Haynes Burke Cates, III, and Kjell Christensen Cates; and her son Richard David Cates and wife Kathleen, and his sons Samuel Blake Cates and wife Nicole, and Richard David Cates, Jr. She also leaves a step great grandson, Jackson Remington Rutherford.

Donations in her memory may be made to The Hagley Museum, 200 Hagley Creek Road, Wilmington DE, 19807; The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, 111 W. 33rd Street, NY, NY, 10120; or The Delaware Association for the Blind, 2915 Newport Gap Pike, Wilmington, DE, 19808.