Frank Yates, Automobile Dealer Who Later Managed Boeing Field

Frank A. Yates, a black-haired cowboy from Colorado Springs, must have cut quite a figure in his hat and boots, swaggering down a Seattle street in the mid-1920s.

At least he caught the eye of future politician Jack Taylor.

"I was in the retail-food business in Columbia City," Taylor said. "I met him walking down the sidewalk. I got a kick out of him.

"I said, `Are you a stranger here?' and he said, `I'm gonna live here.' We were friends since then."

Mr. Yates died Oct. 5 at 90.

In the early days, the Colorado cowboy helped wash the north end of Beacon Hill into Elliott Bay to create the present link to Rainier Valley, now occupied by South Dearborn Street. Soon he was selling Fords. Then he took over the dealership.

"He was real successful," said Taylor. "He got the Dodge agency in Columbia City, then opened another one in West Seattle."

Mr. Yates' son Francis remembered, "When we were kids, he brought home the first V-8 roadster with a rumble seat and took us for a ride.

"In 1933, he changed from Ford to Dodge and Plymouth, and brought home a car with a Philco radio in it - one of the first car radios."

Mr. Yates, active in businessmen's groups, helped Taylor get elected in the mid-1930s as King County commissioner for the south district. To repay the favor, and because Mr. Yates knew mechanics, Taylor appointed him manager of the King County Airport, also known as Boeing Field.

"My brothers and I would go down and visit him," said Francis Yates, "and go up in the tower or be taken up in planes."

Mr. Yates' son Les, of Federal Way, said his father was proudest of going to Washington, D.C., to campaign for getting the Boeing Field runway extended to accommodate planes Boeing wanted to build; otherwise, Yates said, Boeing would have left the area.

"Also, Boeing Field's only control for aircraft was a fellow stationed with a headlight-size blinker atop the old administration building. Dad installed the radio system to accommodate planes with radios."

Mr. Yates did such a good job at Boeing Field that in the early 1940s, Taylor, then state commissioner of lands, appointed him assistant commissioner, citing Mr. Yates' thoroughness and loyalty.

In later years, Mr. Yates served as chief investigator for a pollution-control commission, and as supervisor for the dealer division of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

"He took pride in everything he did and did it well," said Les Yates.

Mr. Yates was a Mason, an Elk and a member of the Nile Patrol, with which he marched for 32 years.

Les Yates said his father had few hobbies but loved to play poker. Mr. Yates' wife, Enid, said he even played with President Truman one time when Truman stopped in Seattle.

Other survivors include a son Earl, of Mountlake Terrace; 13 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and a brother, Elmer Yates, of Tampa.

Services have been held. Remembrances may be sent to the Shriner Hospital for Crippled Children or to any favorite charity.