Shelby County Indiana
Obituaries
Dotson
Obituaries
Dotson
Hilligoss Shrader Funeral Home
August 2107
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L. Stanton Dotson
April 27, 1938 - August 08, 2017
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L. Stanton Dotson, age 79, of Charleston, succumbed to ALS at his home on August 8, 2017 at 9:42 a.m. Funeral arrangements are incomplete with Shrader Funeral Home, 204 N. Locust Street, Arcola. It is requested thoughtful donations in his honor be made to Lincolnland Hospice, Prairie Pavilion 2, 1004 Health Center Drive, Suite 202, Mattoon, IL 61938; or to the ALS Association, 2258 Weldon Parkway, St. Louis, MO 63146-2306.August 2107
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L. Stanton Dotson
April 27, 1938 - August 08, 2017
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Stanton was born in New Orleans, LA on April 27, 1938, the son of Charles W. and Adele Jahncke Dotson. He is survived by his wife, Nancy K. Dotson and the following children and grandchildren: Stanton B. (Bernadette) Dotson of Chesterfield, MO, Charles H. (Lori) Dotson of South Haven, MI, Tamara (Norman) Brown of Kewanee, David (Janet) Dotson of Washington Crossing, PA, and their mother, Judith Baldwin Wetzel of Mattoon; Joseph, Mary, Molly and Jacob of Mattoon, and their mother, Laurie Roley Dotson of Mattoon; his granddaughters, Christine, Nicole, Rachael, Makenna, Brianna, Samantha, Brooklyn, and Fern; grandsons, Stanton U., Chad, Skyelur, Trae, Jakob, Luke, Elijah, and Isaiah; his sister, Adele Pankey Myers of Champaign, sister-in-law, Theresa Dotson of Palm Harbor, FL, and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Charles "Pepper" Dotson.
Stanton grew up in Tuscola. He participated in a wide variety of activities during his elementary and high school years. He expressed his talents in theater and chorus productions, football, and swimming, and was a member of many clubs and student organizations, taking a leadership roll in most of these. In football he received an all-conference recognition in 1954-1955 as center and linebacker, a year Tuscola High School football team was undefeated except for the Thanksgiving Day Game with Arcola. Many of these experiences were remembered with his fellow classmates in October 2016 when they met for their 60th class reunion. He had a strong bond with his classmates and they considered his friendship a gift to them.
At an early age Stanton expressed his interest in a career in law. This was supported by his family as his father had been the State’s Attorney in Douglas County and a well-know attorney in Tuscola. Stan’s family history supported his interest as well, being the great-great-grandson of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War during the Civil War, a very close associate and friend of Abraham Lincoln. He recalled many happy experiences from the summers he spent with his grandparents, Commodore Ernest Lee and Cora Stanton Jahncke at their home on the Gulf of Mexico in Pass Christian, MS. These were exciting summers filled with fishing, swimming, boating, sailing, and family.
Stanton was an ambitious person seeking his first job at age thirteen working at the local grocery and as a farm hand on the Dan Ponder farm in Tuscola. He made his home in Mattoon, a small farm south of the Coles County Airport for fifty years. Early on he prided himself in being able to say that he arrived at the Coles County Courthouse having milked his cow before work every morning. He loved the outdoors and farm life. He raised cattle, Arabian horses, and goats over the years and some crops. He loved trees, rocks, searching the creeks and areas around Coles County for Indian artifacts and spending time by the Embarras River.
In his early years he was an avid hunter being introduced to the sport by his father. Charles Dotson took Stanton and his brother, Pepper, far and wide on hunting trips, primarily hunting birds. He had a fine hunting dog, an Irish setter named Chloe, in his youth. His love of hunting morphed into a love for guns and collecting.
Stanton graduated from the University of Illinois Champaign in May 1960 with a BA in Agricultural Law. While at the U of I, he was associated with the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, received two major awards for public service as a student, the MA-WAN-DA and SACHEM. He was a senior football manager for the Fighting Illini Football Team. He was a member of the Army ROTC. After graduation he served his active duty time as part of the ROTC Program and was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX. He continued service as a reservist reaching the rank of Captain. In 1961 he enrolled at Chicago Kent College of Law/IIT, graduating in 1964 and passing the bar exam in November 1964. He was hired as assistant State’s Attorney by Ralph Glenn in Coles County Illinois in December 1964. In 1968 he was elected the State’s Attorney and served until 1972 when he entered into private practice on Wabash Avenue in Mattoon where he remained as a sole practitioner until June 2014. He received recognition from the Illinois Bar Association for fifty years in the practice of law in November 2014. His ALS diagnosis in January 2015 curtailed his activities, taking official retirement in January 2017.
He was a member of many organizations: Illinois Bar Association, Cole-Cumberland Bar Association, Masonic Lodge, Kiwanis Club, Moose, American Legion, Elks, Coles County Historical Society to name a few and served in leadership roles in many of these.
Stanton had a strong and abiding faith in God, loved his family, had a cleaver wit, loved a good story, never met a stranger, and had an infectious laugh.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
Note: Mr. Dotson spent several years combing through Shelby County Indiana records for his ancestors Dotson and Cumminsky, and collateral families Hinds, Chance and Vice.
