William "Bill" Calton

If you are standing in Big Rock Cemetery - looking at Bill's grave - if you look to your right you should see Big Rock Church. Just to the right of Big Rock Church there is a gravel road (it's probably grown up) with a gate that goes down a big hill. Down that big hill is where Bill was born and raised. His parents owned that farm until shorly after their deaths in the 1990s. Bill was born June 18, 1943 to Charles and Ada Calton - burried in Versailles Cemetery. He was one of fourteen children. He went to Routon School. This was a one room schoolhouse. He attended to the eighth grade. According to his children, he walked to school in the snow without shoes, uphill both ways every day for the entire 8 grades. Although, that probably isn't completely true there was some truth to this as the Calton's were not wealthy, and being one of fourteen probably led to a lack of shoes from time to time. He attended a few days of high school but decided it was not for him and decided to return home to help on the farm. He worked for Brown's Shoe Factory where he met his wife Pat Calton. They were married in 1974. With that union he gained a daughter Chris Petcoff. Bill worked in the factory by day and bailed hay on evenings and weekends. He also spent some time helping his father dig graves, by hand, for Kidwell-Garber. He dearly loved coon hunting and had Blue Tick and Walker Coon Hounds. Pat and Bill eventually went to work at Fasco where Bill worked until he developed Stage 4 colon cancer in his early 40s. They also had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1984, shortly before his diagnosis. He was given 3 weeks to live on more than one occasion due to his advanced cancer and the limitations of treatments in the 1980s. Pat always said he was "too stubborn to die" and he survived colon cancer even despite a recurrence years later. Bill loved attending gunshows and flea markets. He and Pat set up at the Versailles Flea Market throughout the late 80s and early 90s and continued to be patrons there until the time of his death in 2009. They also enjoyed visiting with friends at Randles and later the Silver Saddle Restaurant. He loved walking the creek looking for arrowheads and had a nice collection. He traded junk and guns at auctions, flea markets, and gunshows.