Alice Coates Hall

ALICE COATES HALL, (Mrs. Donald R. Hall), long time resident of Little Rock, Ark. passed away Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 at the Olivia White Hospice Home in Flagstaff. Born Jan. 22, 1936, in Little Rock, Ark., daughter of Anne Bodman and John Eastman Coates; great-granddaughter of James Mitchell, editor of the Arkansas Gazette and founder of the Arkansas Democrat newspapers. Mrs. Hall was the wife of Professor Donald Roots Hall, also born in Little Rock. After living several years in Colorado they moved to Tucson, Ariz. in 1966. Mrs. Hall graduated from St. Anne's Belfield School in Charlottesville, Va., in 1953; with honors from Bennett Jr. College, Millbrook, N.Y., in 1955, and with honors in sociology from Hollins College, Roanoke, Va., in 1957. As a young woman Mrs. Hall was a champion swimmer, diver, and tennis player. She was Little Rock Women's Tennis Champion and Runner Up in the Arkansas Statec Championship. She was a volunteer at the Arkansas Association for the Crippled, and she and her husband taught Sunday school at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock. Mrs. Hall served on the Women's Emergency Committee and the STOP Committee in Little Rock, committees opposing the governor during the integration crisis fueled by Governor Orval Faubus. She was also active --in absentia--in democratizing the Junior League of Little Rock and thereby helping to change the admission policy of the Association of Junior Leagues of America. She and her family moved to Tucson in 1966 where she became very active in the community. She was a particularly strong supporter of Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona, an interest engendered by her mother and mother-in-law, cofounders of Planned Parenthood of Little Rock. She also served on the Board of St. Luke's Home. She was chair of the 30th anniversary of the Silver and Turquoise Ball, Decoration Chair of the Baile de las Flores, and Decoration Chair of the Tucson Symphony Cotillion. She was an early board member of the Angel Charity for Children. She also served on the board of the Rillito-Pantano Coalition as it alerted Tucson citizens to a proposed freeway to be built in and along a flood plain. Mrs. Hall spent two years in the interior design business in Tucson and volunteered countless hours of design work to friends and to the Tucson Country Club's new club house. She was a professional needlework artist. She took great pride in her designs, concentrating on design rather than intricate or varied stitches. She did not use a graph, template, or tracing; she did not pre-draw anything. She would start in the middle of the needlepoint canvass and work the designs outward. Several newspaper and magazine articles were written about her work. Her pieces have been displayed and offered for sale at three private shows in Tucson (the Rosequist Galleries, the Tucson Museum of Art Gift Shop, and a Northern Trust Bank show), People's Imports in Tucson, Gallery 55 in Bisbee, Gallery 117 in Winslow; and in Flagstaff, at the Chair and Trowel Gallery, the Art Barn, and Amellie Design and De'cor. Mrs. Hall was noted for her keen sense of humor and her wonderful way with words. She delighted in working crossword puzzles and won a few national awards for her achievements. She particularly enjoyed hours spent in her book of "New York Times Puzzles." She had a knack for writing humorous limericks, songs, and skits, as well as a knack for choosing particularly humorous presents for family members and friends. She and her husband were members of the Mountain Oyster Club, the Tucson Country Club, and the Aspen Valley Golf Club in Flagstaff, Ariz. Mrs. Hall was preceded in death by her parents John Eastman and Anne Bodman Coates. Mrs. Hall is survived by her loving husband of 55 years, Donald R. Hall; her three children, David Hall of Tucson, Ariz., Alison Baity (Kevin) of Colorado Springs, Colo., Ashley Gruber (Martin "Marty") of Windsor, Colo., and three grandchildren whom she adored. Mrs. Hall is also survived by her brother, David Coates (Lynn) of Little Rock, Ark., and three nieces, Amy Stockinger (Jeff) of Menomonee Falls, Wis., Sara Myhre (Wes), of Charlottesville, Va., and Caroline Coates of Branson, Mo. Mrs. Hall is survived by numerous Coates family members in Baton Rouge, La., as well. Memorial service will be held in Little Rock at a later date. The Hall family would like to thank the kind and caring staff at Olivia White Hospice Home in Flagstaff, Arizona for making her final weeks as pleasant and comfortable as possible. Their warm and professional services eased the pain for the whole family. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family online at www.norvelowensmortuary.com.