Charles was born on a farm in Benton Co., Mo., but at age two his parents moved from there to Oklahoma. He spent his childhood near Watonga, Okla., then left there when he was fourteen years old. About 1911 they moved to Howell Co., Mo. and stayed two years. Then they went to Allen Co., Kans. for two or three years. Finally, they moved to Douglas Co., Mo., near Rome, about the year 1916. Shortly after, at a prayer meeting, he met his wife to be. Charles Yates married Argie Taber, a descendant of pioneer settlers of the Ozarks, on Christmas Day in 1917. She was seventeen years old, and Charles was twenty. They were married near Rome, in Douglas Co., Mo.

After their marriage the young couple continued to reside near Rome, Missouri. In the year 1924, during the "Roaring Twenties", the Yates family of four moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where they settled permanently. Charles Yates had attended a trade school to become a mechanic, and he followed that occupation all his life. He had been working for Foremost Dairies, keeping their trucks in good running order, for many years when he finally retired near the end of his life.

The family lived for many years in a house they owned in Los Angeles proper. But by 1959 they had moved to a suburb, Pico Rivera, and owned a comfortable home there. There was room for a garden and some fruit trees in the back yard, and a few rabbits were also kept for family consumption. Charles usually had two or three cars, and all of them were tuned to perfection and kept in good running order.

Charles Yates enjoyed fishing and planned to enjoy that pasttime after his retirement. However, his health was not good then, and it was not long after he quit work that he contracted a fatal illness, leukemia.