William Carey Bateman Jr.

William Carey Bateman Jr. passed away on November 26, 2025, at home surrounded by his family. A lifelong resident of Memphis, he was born at Baptist Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on May 6, 1938, as the first born of William Carey Bateman Sr. and Marjorie Meeker Bateman. During the Second World War he made countless formative memories at Fort McLellan, Alabama where his father was the base judge advocate.

He graduated from East High School in 1956 and after a year at the University of Tennessee, enlisted in the United States Army. He went on to graduate from Memphis State Law in its first graduating class of 1965. He was an authority in Maritime law, given Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating. In his over forty years of practice, he was a partner at Johnson and Bateman, Bateman and Childers, and Bateman Gibson. He served as an assistant city attorney during the Chandler and Hackett administrations, and as a JAG in the Navy reserves.

He was an avid outdoorsman, loving to hunt and fish, with his most intense outdoor passion being duck hunting. He spent his summers as a boy on Horseshoe Lake and for six decades made regular trips to the Bahamian Abaco Islands to fish and dive for conch and lobster and to Cotter, Arkansas to trout fish. In 1998, he and his wife Edith bought Fern Rock Farm, his cherished getaway, where he loved to ride his tractor, pick blackberries for his homemade jelly, chop firewood, and host friends and family.

He grew up at First Baptist Church where his grandfather Robert Johnston Bateman was pastor. He was a member at First Evangelical Church, and regularly attended Flatwoods Baptist Church in Holladay, Tennessee.

He is preceded in death by his mother and father and survived by his wife, Edith Partee Bateman, his daughter Carey Powers (Reams), son William Bateman III (Maci), step son Lee Bateman, step daughters Mary Martin Ganaway (Kevin) and Catherine Garcia (Buddy), grandchildren Margaret Patton Powers, Darden Powers, Richard Powers, Liz Ritchie (Adam), Will Garcia, Meredith Garcia, Matthew Garcia, Justin Bateman (Summer), and Nathan Bateman, siblings Virginia Bateman Hess, Robert Johnston Bateman (Marilyn), and Marjorie Bateman Gore (Ralph), and many nieces and nephews.

He will be remembered as a loyal and faithful husband, father, and friend, known for his integrity, support of international missionaries, and love of Jesus Christ.

A visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, December 5, 2025, at Memorial Park Cemetery, and a Memorial Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on December 6, 2025, at First Evangelical Church. A private burial will occur at Memorial Park Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Judge and Mrs. William Carey Bateman Memorial Scholarship at Union University.