Leslie N. Stratton Jr.

Leslie N. Stratton Jr., 59, of Holton, passed away Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, at Community Hospital East in Indianapolis after a five-month battle with leukemia.
Born Dec. 2, 1954, at Margaret Mary Hospital in Batesville, he was the son of Leslie and Ruby Bultman Stratton. He married Vernice Owens on March 9, 1974. She survives.
Leslie attended elementary and junior high school at Holton and was a 1973 graduate of Jac-Cen-Del High School. He served in the U.S. Army from 1973 to 1976 and was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Carson, Colorado. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He joined the Indiana State Excise Police on Jan. 8, 1979, after graduating from Vincennes University.
He then graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy on Oct. 5, 1979, and was assigned to the Vincennes District before transferring to the Seymour area where he served the remainder of his career. He was promoted to sergeant on Nov. 1, 1987, and received the department's Educator of the Year award in 1997. He owned and operated Jr.'s Maintenance Services for the last several years. Les was a 50-year member of Dabney Baptist Church.
Other survivors include a son, Roger (Rhonda) Stratton of Holton; a daughter, Jennifer (Hank) Nicholson of Versailles; a daughter-in-law, Katherine Hiatt of Holton; father and mother-in-law, Joe and Susan Owens of Osgood; grandchildren, Levi Stratton, Emmett Stratton, Lanie Nicholson, Lucie Nicholson, Clint Nicholson and Emma Hiatt; a sister, Barbara (Chuck)
Stevenson of Indianapolis; and two brothers, Sam (Jamie) Stratton of Lafayette and Mike (Janine) Stratton of Holton.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a stepmother, Carol Stratton; and son, Leslie Scott Stratton.
A funeral service will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Dabney Baptist Church, with the Rev. Michael Bell and the Rev. Bob Smith officiating. Burial will be in Dabney Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Stratton-Kersteter Funeral Home, Versailles, and from 9:30 a.m. until time of service Saturday at the church.
Memorials may be made to Dabney Baptist Church or Dabney Cemetery.