This weekend was a time of celebration for many in Norman as seniors walked across the stage in a ceremony that culminated years of effort at the University of Oklahoma.

But for one family, the graduation walk was bittersweet.

Markisha Jacquette Gates, 32, died Wednesday, just days before she was set to receive her undergraduate degree in social work. Instead, her two sons, Richard, 13, and Malik, 11, accepted her diploma at the College of Arts and Sciences Convocation Saturday.

“I know it’s gonna be significant to the boys because their mother really pushed education,” said Rhoda Jones, Gates’ grandmother. Jones said Gates was a caring person who loved others.

“I guess you would know that by her wanting to go off into this (social work) field,” Jones said.

Gates died Wednesday at Intergris Southwest Medical Center of smoke inhalation from a May 3 fire at her house in Oklahoma City, said Janice Pulliam, executive secretary of the Oklahoma City Fire Department.

Gates’ youngest son and husband, Richard, were in the house when the fire started, but were not injured. The fire came after Gates spent the day working at her new job, where she had been hired as a child welfare worker at the Department of Human Services. After working at DHS, she had worked until midnight at the Sheraton Hotel, where she worked through school.

“She worked hard being a mother, a wife and a student as well as holding down a job to get her degree,” Gates’ stepmother Joyce Smith said.

But Gates didn’t spend time worrying about herself, Smith said.

“She was a very loving, giving person, especially to her community,” Smith said. “She always put other people before herself.”

And it’s those qualities that equipped Gates so well for her chosen profession.

“She would have been a great social worker. She had a wonderful attitude,” said Diane Freeman, staff assistant at the OU School of Social Work.

When those at the school heard about Gates’ death, they wanted to help her family.

“We just want to do something for them,” Freeman said.

The school will host a benefit garage sale 8 a.m.-5 p.m. May 30 and 31 at Rhyne Hall, 1005 S. Jenkins Ave. The school also opened a fund for Gates’ family at the OU Federal Credit Union.