Gates was born in Charleston, West Virginia, USA, on 6 April 1905, to parents Harry Lee Tully (1878–1954) and Lucy H. McIntosh (1881–1974). She had three siblings: Lillian, James Curtis (1909–1998) and Harry Atlee (1920–2008).

In the 1920s, she married James O’Dell and had one child with him, Norma O’Dell Hobbs (born 1927). She divorced her first husband and later married Louis “Fritz” Gates, who passed away in 1965. Gates worked for the Columbia Gas Company for over thirty years. For many years after her retirement, she served as a volunteer at the Women and Children’s Hospital in Charleston.

Gates passed away in Houston, Texas, USA, on 23 December 2017, at the age of 112 years, 261 days. She was survived by three granddaughters and three great-grandchildren.