William J. Cotton

Bill was born on June 10, 1952 to Elgar and Glada (Anderson) Cotton in Canton, OH. He attended Kingsford High school and graduated from there in 1970. In 1971 he married his former wife, Nancy Seelund, and together they had three children, Joel, Melissa and Samantha. Bill began working for Wisconsin Electric Power Company in 1972, where he had a long and fulfilling career until his retirement in 2010. He married Julie Bonikowske in Las Vegas, NV in 2009. Bill was a man of many talents and everything he tried to do he succeeded and perfected. He had many interests and hobbies. He loved to restore and work on classic cars and attend car shows. He taught himself upholstery and eventually had a successful upholstery business in his spare time and did beautiful work restoring antique furniture, classic cars, RVs and boats. He loved to travel, and he loved to "tinker" and he recently took up jewelry making. Bill had a lifelong passion for music, especially playing guitar, singing and songwriting. Throughout his life he was a member of several bands, performing and playing Rock-N-Roll, Country, R&B and Gospel music. Later in life he loved to play his guitar and sing together with his granddaughter, Sydney.

Bill is survived by his wife, Julie Cotton of Brownsville TX, his son, Joel (Patrece) Cotton of Iron Mountain, MI; daughters Melissa (Albert) Monhead of Kingsford, MI and Samantha (Tony) Micheau of Kingsford, MI; step-daughters Tara Chartier of Detroit, MI and Nikki Chartier of Florida, seven grandchildren. Three step-grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren, his sister Emelia (Ron) Curran of Kingsford, MI; his brother Keith Cotton of Wausaukee, WI, sister-in-law Lynne Cotton of Kingsford, MI; as well as many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and friends from all over. He was preceded in death by his mother and father and by his brother George Cotton.

A Celebration of life will be held on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at Clubhouse in Winter Haven Resort from 1-4 pm.