Lee, Dee & Pete Shelton Diesel Technology Memorial
Lee Shelton (September 30, 1931 – July 1, 2013):
Lee was born on a rainy, windy day September 30, 1931 at home on the Feigenberg Persimmon Ranch in Cottonwood. His father was the ranch foreman. The ranch is located where the Cottonwood Creek and Sacramento River join. He was named Elvin Leroy from some novel or storybook of the day. The nickname Lee fits much better.
When Lee was about nine months old, the family moved to the Sunnyhill area northwest of Ono. He attended Ono grammar school and Shasta Union High School graduating in 1949.
Lee served in the U.S. Navy on the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Boxer and worked at Alameda Naval Air Station while stationed there. Slender as he was, he could crawl through the airplane turrets to repair and check them.
After returning to Redding, he worked as a Master Mechanic for Rother Auto Parts and Santos Bros. Logging. In 1973 he became his own boss by purchasing a logging truck and worked in the Burney area. In 1976 he purchased the logging trucks from Santos Bros. and became the proud owner with all the headaches and devotion of running six, seven and eight trucks, which he is still doing today becoming a successful business man.
When he was about two years old, he fell over a sack of potatoes with a jar of pears in hand, which broke, cutting off the end of his finger.
In his younger days he had a horse names Scout, which was one of his favorite pastimes to ride and care for.
He has helped members of his family with house painting and plumbing, which made for some fun times and learning experiences.
When in grammar school, he played the violin and acted in the school plays.
Dee Shelton (April 24, 1931 – January 14, 2013):
Dee was born in Minnesota on April 24, 1931, and named Dolores Bilenjenski, but came to California when she was one and a half years old. Her family lived in the bay area and spent time at Tamales Bay where they enjoyed fishing.
In 1946 her family moved to Ono and she thought she had been taken to the end of the world. She tried driving a John Deere type tractor and all kinds of farm chores.
Lee discovered her and thought, “There is a gal with a lot of gumption and courage.” They attended Shasta High School together, becoming sweethearts and were married shortly after graduation on October 11, 1949.
Prior to their marriage, Dee lived with Lees sisters, where she was a constant joy by playing tunes and singing with kitchen instruments. She is quite musical and loves to watch tapes of the Great Musicals. A seamstress she was not, she attempted to make a dress once and when she tired of ripping it out and resewing she took the scissors and cut it in many pieces.
When lee was in the service, she worked at Great American Insurance. She worked for several years as a teller at Wells Fargo Bank in Redding. She also worked in the Woolworth’s Restaurant and could make a wonderful ham salad sandwich and hot fudge sundae.
In 1974 she moved to Cassel in a very small trailer to be near Lee and his work and they eventually moved to Burney and purchased a larger mobile home. She became his bookkeeper and payroll clerk, which she still does.
After many months of living apart because of the logging world, Lee in the bus motor-home and Dee in Burney, they purchased the present property in Douglas City in 1986.
Lee loves to hunt and fish and with his brothers, brothers-in-law and friends used to love hunting camps and telling tales around the campfires. However, lack of deer has curtailed the hunting camps the past few years.
When wrestling was popular and held at the Veterans Hall in Redding, it was one of Dee’s favorite outings.
Lee and Dee both like to make trips to Reno for gambling when time will allow. Dee is the luckier gambler of the two.
Two of their loves are and were- the 1965 Mustang and Lee’s Purple jeep.
Wallace “Pete” Shelton (May 28, 1936 – February 11 2015):
In the fall of 1955, he enlisted in the Navy spending two years as radio man aboard the USS Whitehurst DE634. While sailing the Pacific he and his brother, Lee, who was serving aboard the USS Boxer aircraft carrier, met for a wild celebration weekend while on patrol of the Carolina Islands and Marianas up past Iwo Jima to Japan. He was discharged in 1957.
Once again in civilian life, he worked setting chokers for a logging company. Then along came a job at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operating a pick and shovel installing stream flow gaging stations on the Trinity River and Coffee Creek. He began a career in the USGS as a Hydro-Tech in Sacramento and was transferred to the Redding office in 1959. He returned to Sacramento in 1964 to take charge of constructing steam flow gaging stations throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. During 1974 the Redding Field Office Chief position became available and he accepted the position. He retired from the USGS in May 1991.
For 21 years he drove logging trucks and worked as a mechanic for his brother, Lee Shelton Trucking, out of Douglas City. During earlier years he worked on weekends for brother, Whimpy Shelton, as a mechanic. He also drove the mail truck for Matheson Postal Inc. on the Trinity County run from 2004-2011. In 2011 he started driving the water truck for Bundy and Sons Logging retiring because of health issues in 2014.
He and Pat Phillips his companion of 25 years traveled much of the United States and cruised many interesting places around the world including Hawaii, Mexico and Antarctica. All who knew him well miss one of the most giving, generous, helpful “Mr. Fix-it” persons on this Earth who loved to talk on the phone, Email, greet you with “Top of the morning to you” and who always had a message to live by on his answering machine.
Pat graduated in 1955 from Shasta College with an AA Degree in Heavy Duty Mechanics.