Guy Coates

Earnest Guy Coates, Jr. (Long-time Associated Press correspondent)
Born	June 28, 1940 Monroe, Louisiana
Died	January 12, 2021 (aged 80) Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Spouse	(1) Charlotte Bernice "Shirley" Jolissaint Coates Bueche (married 1961; divorced) (2) Jonica M. Coates (married c. 1981-2021, his death) Children: From first marriage: Guy Coates, III Jennifer Ann Coates Rebecca Ann Riviello Wilma L. Bell Parents: E. Guy, Sr., and Winnie Lee Coates.[1] Alma mater: University of Louisiana at Monroe

Earnest Guy Coates, Jr., known as Guy Coates (June 28, 1940 – January 12, 2021), was a journalist who for forty years was the capitol correspondent for the Associated Press in his native Louisiana.^[2]

Background and career[edit]

Coates was born in Monroe to Guy, Sr. (1909-1998}, and Winnie Lee Coates (1916-1981), who operated a doughnut shop. He had an older sister, Dorothy Coates Talley (1934-2012). Coates graduated from what is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He worked first for The Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller Times, then The Shreveport Times, and the CBS television affiliates KNOE in Monroe and KSLA in Shreveport. He joined the AP in New Orleans in 1968; five years later he was named the AP bureau chief at the state Capitol in Baton Rouge. He covered the activities of six Louisiana governor, Jimmie Davis, John J. McKeithen, Edwin Edwards, David C. Treen, Buddy Roemer, and Mike Foster.^[3]

He reported on dozens of legislative sessions and countless political campaigns. He became an expert on Louisiana politics and provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 1973 convention that led to a new state constitution in 1974. He held public officials accountable with his tough questioning. Former United States Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat called Coates "one of Louisiana's finest reporters." In addition to political matters, he reported on a sniper in New Orleans, Hurricane Camille in coastal Mississippi in 1969, and floods and prison riots. He was a mentor to young reporters, Each week, he published a column on Louisiana politics and government that often featured the homespun observations of a fictional friend that he named "Jethro Rotheschild."^[3]

Jeremy James Alford (born 1978), the editor and publisher of LaPolitics Weekly and The Tracker, the leading trade publications for elected officials, campaign professionals, and donors in Louisiana,^[4] said that Coates "had cut his teeth during the golden, grizzled age of American journalism. When he was a cub reporter, many of his colleagues stashed a pine (or two) of whiskey in their desks or in their pockets (or both)."^[5]

Personal life[edit]

Coates was first married in 1961 in St. Paschal Catholic Church in West Monroe to the former Charlotte Bernice Jolissaint (born 1943),^[6] since Charlotte Bueche. Her father, Richard C. "Dick" Jolissaint (1904-1988), was an alderman, mayor pro tempore, and unsuccessful candidate for mayor of West Monroe, date unavailable. He was a charter member of St. Paschal and a member of the Knights of Columbus.^[7] Her mother was the former Wilma B. Ragland (1913-1995).^[8]

Coates' former wife, Charlotte Bueche, is or has been a real estate agent in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, Florida. She is married to Steve J. Bueche. In 1981, Coates wed Jonica Coates. From the first marriage, he had four children, Guy Coates, III, Jennifer Anne Coates, and Rebecca Riviello and her husband, Albert Joseph Riviello, all of Orlando, and Wilma L. Bell and her husband, Timothy of Sugar Hill, Georgia. He had four grandchildren: Leah, Blaine and Grace Bell and Ryan Riviello. There was no funeral service because his death came near the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.^[3]

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