CATCHING UP WITH BOB COTTRILL, CLASS OF 1949

 

Bob Cottrill, Class of 1949, is enjoying his second marriage to Thelma after his first wife, super nurse Barbara Jean Henderson Cottrill, passed away in 2007. Bob and Thelma live in Pine Creek, which is about 70 miles south of Melbourne and 28 miles directly west of Fort Pierce with its Atlantic Ocean beach.

 

Perhaps the toughest ballcarrier in Monongah High football history (just ask the dozens of tacklers he laid out) has a soft spot for “great” Thelma who is “a good person.”

 

Bob owned Cottrill’s Mountain, 120 acres near Burnsville, West Virginia that he turned over to his two grandchildren.

 

Bob jitterbugged his way out of playing golf a few years ago. It seems his shoes and the dance floor didn’t get along and the flop during energetic dancing broke his thigh.

 

Bob knew Thelma for 22 years because she was a good friend of Bob’s wife, Barbara. Between wives he dated children’s book author Kathy for 4 years before his 2011 wedding to Thelma. Bob will be attending Kathy’s funeral services this week. She passed away last week.

 

Bob’s golfing partners the Bennetts, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina like Thelma, helped bring Bob and Thelma back into each other’s lives.

 

Bob’s grandson, Chris Barnes, is a Kent high school and University of Akron graduate with a title insurance business in Medina County, which borders the Summit County where I live in Tallmadge, Ohio. Chris’ mother is Bob’s daughter, Rhonda. He works for Fidelity Mortgage and Title. Bob also has sons Rob in Atlanta and Randy in Tampa.

Paula JoAnn Cottrill, Bob’s half-sister (same father, different mothers), passed away after a 2016 auto accident.

 

Bob keeps in touch with fellow Lions not named John Olesky, too. Arlene Marteney Edgell, Class of 1951, married to Okey Edgell, Class of 1944; Duane Harbert, Class of 1951; and, till she passed away, Frances Wimer Miller, who moved to Tulsa from West Virginia.