Russell Cotton

Russell Cotton -- St. Anne Visitation for Russell A. Cotton, 56, of St. Anne, will be from 4-8 p.m. Monday at Clancy-Gernon-Houk Funeral Home, St. Anne. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church in St. Anne. Rev. Lori Keller Schroeder will officiate. Burial will be in St. Anne Township Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Russell Cotton Scholarship Fund or First Presbyterian Church, where he was a member. He died Thursday (March 30, 2006) at his home. Mr. Cotton was owner and operator of Medler and Cotton Drainage Inc. He was born Oct. 30, 1949, in Greenville, Ky., the son of Lee Thomas and Mae Belle Covington Cotton. He had been president of the St. Anne High School Board since 1995 and a board member most of the 1980s. He was the 2004 recipient of the Lowe School Board Recognition Award from the Pledge for Life Partnership. In recent years, Mr. Cotton led the effort to build a new $10 million school to replace the 1929 high school. In the 1990s, when the district was hit with the loss of special state funding because of a flawed U.S. Census of low-income students, he worked with then-Superintendent Jerry Newell and former state Rep. Phil Novak and other local legislators to win a special recovery appropriation of $600,000 per year for three years. He served in the U.S. Marines from September 1969-June 1971, serving a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was a member of the Elks Country Club in St. Anne, American Legion Post 842, Chebanse VFW Post 1059, Illinois Land Improvement Contractors Association and the Operating Engineers Local 150. He had been president of the St. Anne Jaycees. Surviving are his wife, the former Deborah Medler, whom he married June 10, 1972, at First Presbyterian Church in St. Anne; one son, Thomas Cotton and special friend Sue Beaupre and children, Mason and Jordan of St. Anne; one daughter, Sara Cotton of New York, N.Y.; two grandchildren, Kadie and Connor Cotton; his mother Mae Belle Gifford of Kentucky; three sisters and brothers-in-law, Linda and Robert Corriveau of St. Anne, Dawn and James Hampton of Kentucky, Cecilia and Jim Wallace of Florida; one brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Debbie Cotton of St. Anne; one stepbrother, Steve Gifford of Kentucky; father-in-law, Henry Medler of St. Anne; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Brenda and Thomas Baird of Kankakee; brother-in-law, Gary Medler of Chicago; and several aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. His father; one sister, Carol Wiggins; stepfather, Arbain Gifford; and mother-in-law, Ethel Medler, are deceased.

Russell Cotton

October 30, 1949 - March 30, 2006