It's a double Bates birthday! Trace Bates is turning 20, and Jeb Bates is turning five.
The eighth oldest of Gil and Kelly Bates' 19 children, Trace Whitfield loves anything that involves competition, including basketball, football, ping pong, foosball, horseback riding, and indoor games. He has been working with Gil in the family tree business and aspires to be a trick rider at the Dixie Stampede. Trace also enjoys telling Chuck Norris jokes.
The Bates say that Jeb Colton, the youngest child, is spoiled. His name means "beloved friend of Coal Town." Before the Bates' small town was renamed Rocky Top three years ago, it was Lake City, but up until the 1930s, it was Coal Creek.
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The eighth oldest of Gil and Kelly Bates' 19 children, Trace Whitfield loves anything that involves competition, including basketball, football, ping pong, foosball, horseback riding, and indoor games. He has been working with Gil in the family tree business and aspires to be a trick rider at the Dixie Stampede. Trace also enjoys telling Chuck Norris jokes.
The Bates say that Jeb Colton, the youngest child, is spoiled. His name means "beloved friend of Coal Town." Before the Bates' small town was renamed Rocky Top three years ago, it was Lake City, but up until the 1930s, it was Coal Creek.
Trace Bates and Jeb Bates
Photo courtesy of UP