Robert Eric "Bob" Cotton

Funeral services for Mr. Robert Eric “Bob” Cotton of West Monroe will be 12:00pm Saturday, January 16, 2021 in the chapel of Mulhearn Funeral Home Winnsboro with John Parker officiating. Interment will follow at Oak Grove Baptist Cemetery near Winnsboro under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home. Visitation will be from 10:00am until time of service Saturday at the funeral home.

Mr. Cotton, a retired business executive, was born April 5, 1928 in Allentown, PA to immigrant parents, Mary Elizabeth Clayton Cotton and Eric Francis Cotton. He passed away January 12, 2021 at St. Francis Medical center in Monroe, LA.

He was the salutatorian graduate of Bangor High School, class president, and voted most likely to succeed. Shortly after graduation, Bob attained the rank of corporal in the United States Army after serving in Japan during World War II. He went on to graduate from Lafayette College. He earned his Juris Doctor from Temple University, and later became a certified public accountant.

After marrying his high school sweetheart, Joanne Etta Beeten Cotton, he expanded his horizons and moved to New York, Indiana and Dallas, Texas. He is preceded in death by his first wife after thirty-one years of marriage. Moving on to Lafayette, LA, he married Mary Parker Cotton (Wiggins) and together formed an extended family of nine children; Barry Parker, Keith Parker, Mary McDavid, Lisa Cotton Clarke, Michael Parker, Debbie Meadows, Geoffrey Cotton, John Parker and Susan Hovinen.

Always up for a challenge he moved back to Dallas and then to Oxford, MS, and finally landed in West Monroe. He was an active participate in his community and participated in marathons. He was also a member of Ionic Presbyterian Church.
He is survived by his wife, nine children, thirty grandchildren, forty-two great-grandchildren, and 4 great great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers the family has requested that donations be made to St. Jude’s Research Hospital.