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Pat Gates Passes Away

DJ, VOA host, press secretary, ambassador, Gates lived a varied life

Patricia Gates Lynch Ewell, 85, had a life most might only dream about.

According to an obituary in The Washington Post, she was an NBC radio reporter in post-war Europe before returning stateside and settling in as “Pat Gates,” a DJ for WFAX(AM) in Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb. Gates did the usual spinning of wax and snagging interviews with anyone and everyone, including celebrities passing through town.

In 1962 Gates joined the Voice of America, eventually becoming host of the popular “Breakfast Show.” Working around a stint as a press aide to First Lady Pat Nixon, she was in the job for 20 years. President Ronald Reagan appointed her ambassador to Madagascar and the Comoros Islands in 1986. She served there until 1989.

Gates was married three times, all to U.S. Army officers; two of them generals.

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