MOBILE, Ala. -- Bill Menton, a former state senator and county commissioner for south Mobile County, died Monday. He was 90.
Menton, an Irvington resident, was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1982 as a Democrat, representing south Mobile County's District 35.
He then served as Mobile County commissioner for south Mobile County, a seat that he held from 1988 to 1992.
His son, Eddie Menton, said his father was motivated to run for public offices in an effort to help people.
"Everything about his life was people," Eddie Menton said.
He moved to Mobile from Patterson, N.J., to attend Spring Hill College on scholarships in football, basketball and baseball, his son said.
After graduating in 1942, Menton coached sports at the college campus and at UMS High School for several years.
Menton later worked as a Mobile County juvenile probation officer and helped establish a juvenile division for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, his son said.
"The most rewarding thing I've gotten out of helping the kids is when I meet some grown man, and he tells me, 'If it hadn't been for you I'd be in the penitentiary today,'" Menton told the Press-Register in 2000. "That's a reward money can't buy."
He also was a former Bayou La Batre police chief and a crime prevention officer for Mobile County public schools before making his first run for the Alabama Legislature.
State Rep. Spencer Collier, R-Irvington, said that as a senior in high school, he shadowed Menton for a day to learn about his duties on the County Commission.
"We always felt Senator Menton was fighting for the everyday, working-class people in south Mobile," Collier said.
Menton was hired in 1996 as executive director of the Alabama Fraternal Order of Police, his son said.
He was a member of St. Margaret Catholic Church in Bayou La Batre.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carmen Santana Menton, eight children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, with the rosary at 6:30 p.m., at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile.
Interment will be in St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Coden. Memorials may be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Menton, an Irvington resident, was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1982 as a Democrat, representing south Mobile County's District 35.
He then served as Mobile County commissioner for south Mobile County, a seat that he held from 1988 to 1992.
His son, Eddie Menton, said his father was motivated to run for public offices in an effort to help people.
"Everything about his life was people," Eddie Menton said.
He moved to Mobile from Patterson, N.J., to attend Spring Hill College on scholarships in football, basketball and baseball, his son said.
After graduating in 1942, Menton coached sports at the college campus and at UMS High School for several years.
Menton later worked as a Mobile County juvenile probation officer and helped establish a juvenile division for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, his son said.
"The most rewarding thing I've gotten out of helping the kids is when I meet some grown man, and he tells me, 'If it hadn't been for you I'd be in the penitentiary today,'" Menton told the Press-Register in 2000. "That's a reward money can't buy."
He also was a former Bayou La Batre police chief and a crime prevention officer for Mobile County public schools before making his first run for the Alabama Legislature.
State Rep. Spencer Collier, R-Irvington, said that as a senior in high school, he shadowed Menton for a day to learn about his duties on the County Commission.
"We always felt Senator Menton was fighting for the everyday, working-class people in south Mobile," Collier said.
Menton was hired in 1996 as executive director of the Alabama Fraternal Order of Police, his son said.
He was a member of St. Margaret Catholic Church in Bayou La Batre.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carmen Santana Menton, eight children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, with the rosary at 6:30 p.m., at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile.
Interment will be in St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Coden. Memorials may be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor.
MOBILE, Ala. -- Bill Menton, a former state senator and county commissioner for south Mobile County, died Monday. He was 90.
Menton, an Irvington resident, was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1982 as a Democrat, representing south Mobile County's District 35.
He then served as Mobile County commissioner for south Mobile County, a seat that he held from 1988 to 1992.
His son, Eddie Menton, said his father was motivated to run for public offices in an effort to help people.
"Everything about his life was people," Eddie Menton said.
He moved to Mobile from Patterson, N.J., to attend Spring Hill College on scholarships in football, basketball and baseball, his son said.
After graduating in 1942, Menton coached sports at the college campus and at UMS High School for several years.
Menton later worked as a Mobile County juvenile probation officer and helped establish a juvenile division for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, his son said.
"The most rewarding thing I've gotten out of helping the kids is when I meet some grown man, and he tells me, 'If it hadn't been for you I'd be in the penitentiary today,'" Menton told the Press-Register in 2000. "That's a reward money can't buy."
He also was a former Bayou La Batre police chief and a crime prevention officer for Mobile County public schools before making his first run for the Alabama Legislature.
State Rep. Spencer Collier, R-Irvington, said that as a senior in high school, he shadowed Menton for a day to learn about his duties on the County Commission.
"We always felt Senator Menton was fighting for the everyday, working-class people in south Mobile," Collier said.
Menton was hired in 1996 as executive director of the Alabama Fraternal Order of Police, his son said.
He was a member of St. Margaret Catholic Church in Bayou La Batre.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carmen Santana Menton, eight children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, with the rosary at 6:30 p.m., at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile.
Interment will be in St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Coden. Memorials may be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Menton, an Irvington resident, was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1982 as a Democrat, representing south Mobile County's District 35.
He then served as Mobile County commissioner for south Mobile County, a seat that he held from 1988 to 1992.
His son, Eddie Menton, said his father was motivated to run for public offices in an effort to help people.
"Everything about his life was people," Eddie Menton said.
He moved to Mobile from Patterson, N.J., to attend Spring Hill College on scholarships in football, basketball and baseball, his son said.
After graduating in 1942, Menton coached sports at the college campus and at UMS High School for several years.
Menton later worked as a Mobile County juvenile probation officer and helped establish a juvenile division for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, his son said.
"The most rewarding thing I've gotten out of helping the kids is when I meet some grown man, and he tells me, 'If it hadn't been for you I'd be in the penitentiary today,'" Menton told the Press-Register in 2000. "That's a reward money can't buy."
He also was a former Bayou La Batre police chief and a crime prevention officer for Mobile County public schools before making his first run for the Alabama Legislature.
State Rep. Spencer Collier, R-Irvington, said that as a senior in high school, he shadowed Menton for a day to learn about his duties on the County Commission.
"We always felt Senator Menton was fighting for the everyday, working-class people in south Mobile," Collier said.
Menton was hired in 1996 as executive director of the Alabama Fraternal Order of Police, his son said.
He was a member of St. Margaret Catholic Church in Bayou La Batre.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carmen Santana Menton, eight children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, with the rosary at 6:30 p.m., at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile.
Interment will be in St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Coden. Memorials may be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor.
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