By KAREN BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

GRAFTON, Ill. — Instead of seeing the last few crates of apples carted off for cold storage at the end of the season, Yates Apple Orchard owner Bill Yates will see a bulldozer push over his fruit trees.

Yates is at the ripe age of 73 as an orchardist, an age which he and his family in rural Grafton in Jersey County agree would be too challenging for him to carry on the business.

“The orchard has been in the family for 79 years, and I have had it for 50 of those years and just loved it,” Yates said. “But it is time to plant new apple trees that would start producing in two to three years, and I would be pushing toward 80. So, I feel it’s time to get out of the business and will close.”

The orchard was bought in 1931 by Yates’ father, the late Olen Hoyt Yates, replete with 200 acres of apple orchards and a business complimentary to his Yates Produce, which operated in nearby Godfrey until the 1960s.

Godfrey is where Bill grew up, then graduated from Alton High School and shipped out 10 days later with the U.S. Navy. Upon his return home in 1960, Bill moved to the orchard property north of Alton in southwestern Illinois, near the Mississippi River.

“I had hay fever as a child, so I didn’t get to come up to the orchard as much as I would have liked to, but just loved it here and still do,” Yates said. “By the time I got the farm, we had 20 acres of apple orchards. I had to teach myself a lot about it, as I hadn’t really listened to Dad when I was growing up.”

Yates said he retired from National Maintenance in 2001, after 31 years, and credits his wife, Bonnie, who he married in 1971, for helping him with the challenges of operating a working orchard with both of them working other full-time jobs. Bonnie continues to work as custodian for Dow Baptist Church.

“We just love working the orchard, and only took one vacation and didn’t like it; we would rather be here on the orchard,” he said. “But it came down to simple economics. The last 10 years, I have lost more money than I made, as Mother Nature can be cruel, and I am not getting any younger.”

The couple has four adult children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, with one more on the way.

Unfortunately, none of them is interested in taking over the business. At the end of the season, the apple trees will be uprooted and cleared.

“I don’t regret one moment of having the orchard, despite the challenges, and have enjoyed meeting all the families that came to get apples, cider, apple butter,” he said. “I have loved it, but must say that my happiest moment was when I married Bonnie.”