Jim Bates lived his whole life in Henderson. His choice to stay here was rooted in the comfort and support that Bates—at age 13—felt from the community after his father died.
At that time, it was his mother, Bates and his sister, and “every time they needed something,” the community came through, said Bates’ daughter, Merritt Bates-Thomas.
“He carried that on with him to his adult life by giving back to others,” Bates-Thomas said.
Bates, who died on Thanksgiving at age 90, was a lifelong farmer and banker, who worked at Union Federal and moved up to the position of vice president and manager of all Henderson branches.
He was also a Hall of Fame broadcaster well-known for his calls of Henderson County High School boys and girls basketball games on WSON.
For his broadcasting prowess, he was inducted in the Henderson County Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and was a recipient of the KHSAA Lifetime Media Achievement Award in 2010. After a disagreement with WSON, Bates quit broadcasting but stayed close to Colonel and Lady Colonel basketball.
Former Lady Colonel basketball coach Jeff Haile said that though Bates was officially the scorekeeper—a position he held from 1999 to 2019—he was more like an assistant coach who traveled with the team and attended practices, often offering his suggestions.
And he was a father figure—always concerned with coaches’ health, mental state, coaching, how the kids were doing, Haile said.
“One great man is what he was,” Haile said.
And the athletes liked being around him, too. Haile said the day after games, Bates would cut clippings out of the newspaper for them “neatly folded in an envelope.”
Bates’ work at the bank, his work in the community, his work in Presbyterian Church and his work as a broadcaster and later scorekeeper for HCHS basketball games all revolved around one thing: relationships, said Bates-Thomas.
That’s one reason Bates stuck around the Colonel basketball programs after he stopped broadcasting, he had developed close relationships with the coaches on both staffs, which was one of the great things about him—trying to treat both programs equally, Haile said.
Current Lady Colonels assistant coach Danny Perkins said he followed HCHS basketball games while he was at Kentucky Wesleyan College by listening to Bates’ calls on the radio.
Perkins said there was a craft to Bates’ broadcasting “like an artist with a canvas” except that Bates used his words to paint the picture of the action on the court. It was as “if you were sitting there in the bleachers with a bag of popcorn” watching the game, he said.
Current HCHS basketball coach Tyler Smithart was a player when Bates called games for the radio and when he returned as the head coach in 2012, Bates was keeping the scorebook.
Smithart called Bates the “North Star” of Colonel basketball because everything players and coaches aspire to—doing things correctly, having class and integrity, giving your best effort—“Those qualities he exuded,” Smithart said.
Both Haile and Smithart said Bates was always positive and offered encouragement, which is important for coaches with pressure to win, both said. Smithart was particularly grateful because as a young coach in 2012-13, his first season with the Cols, he wanted to win and he wanted the boosters to back him.
Bates helped him stay even keel because as much as Bates wanted to win, he was more about the team doing it right and striving for their “absolute best effort”—akin to the philosophy of the great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, Smithart said.
Another great thing about Bates that both Smithart and Perkins acknowledge is that he was known, loved and respected at high school basketball gyms across western Kentucky. Perkins said numerous programs get good people to keep the book at games, and they come to know each other, especially if one does it as long as Bates did.
It’s another example of the relationships Bates built, in this case with basketball as the backdrop. “Everywhere he went, they knew him,” Smithart said, adding they were “genuinely glad to see him.” Perkins said after Bates no longer kept books for the teams, he was always fielding questions about how Bates was doing.
Both Perkins and Bates are precise, especially when it comes to the statistics of Colonel and Lady Colonel basketball. As statisticians will be, both looked over the other’s work to make sure it’s correct, almost as if they were looking for a mistake—and they were.
Perkins said he rarely ever found any mistakes, but “once in a while I’d catch one.” And Bates wanted to know. Perkins said that was a credit to Bates because getting it right was more important than ego.
Everyone interviewed commented that Bates was the type of person others strive to be.
“He was the consummate gentleman—in everything he did,” Perkins said.
Because Bates was such a good person, his persona spread to others around him, Smithhart said. Smithart said when he was around him, he tried to emulate him and be the same “high-quality” person as Bates was.
Bates-Thomas said her dad was active in the Presbyterian Church, singing in the choir and serving as a deacon. Perkins described Bates as God-fearing, but he would never force it on someone. But if you asked him, “he was going to be honest with you” about his beliefs.
Former HCHS basketball coach Curtis Turley said Bates was “the ultimate professional in every sense of the word.”
Turley relayed an example of this professionalism, which included a healthy dose of preparation, when one spring Bates and his wife, Betty, took a trip to Pine Bluff, Ark., where the Colonels would play in a big tournament the next winter so that he could get the lay of the land. He even interviewed the tournament director and a coach, Turley said.
Though Turley was on the sidelines, he was able to listen to many of the games Bates called because he taped a lot of them. Turley said Bates would tape some of the bigger matchups the Colonels had and gave them to him.
Bates-Thomas said her father was proud of the friendships he’d developed within the community and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and probably was proudest of his wife and their long life together.
Bates-Thomas said that her mother, Betty, was Bates’ biggest supporter, often accompanying him to games he called or kept score. They were married for 63 years before she passed in September 2024.
Turley, like others interviewed, said Bates loved Henderson.
“I don’t know of anybody who loved Henderson County more than Jim Bates,” Turley said.
Bates-Thomas said her father would have had opportunities to leave Henderson during his life but that’s not what he wanted.
“He was a Hendersonian and that’s where he wanted to be,” Bates-Thomas said.
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A joint Celebration of Life Service for both Jim and Betty Bates will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, January 10, 2026, at The Presbyterian Church of Henderson. Private family burial will be in Fernwood Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, January 9, 2026, at Rudy-Rowland Funeral Home and from 9 a.m. until service time Saturday, January 10, 2026, at the church.
