Lewis Strange Shelton, affectionately known as LOUIE or COOL DAD, was born June 30, 1935, in Cleveland, Ohio to the late William and Nellie Shelton (nee Strange). He enjoyed playing sports, singing doo-wop and eating donuts for breakfast. Before graduating from East Tech High School, he was a valued member of the track team, majored in architecture and voted most likely to succeed…according to one of the many stories he told his children.

A few years after graduating from East Technical High School in 1954 with perfect attendance, Lew joined the United States Army.  While serving, Lew was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii where he participated in many adventures that taught him advanced organization skills and educated him on coconut bars and pineapples.  Once he returned to Cleveland as a distinguished office manager and marksman, Lew continued his education by going to school for electronics and started self-learning carpentry and interior design.

Lew worked many odd jobs, selling shoes at Sears and working at a candy/tobacco company, before finding his full-time career at General Motors, Parma Press Metals in 1964.  He would use his education and organization skills to soon be promoted to supervisor, the first Black foreman at the Parma, Ohio plant, while doing home remodeling in his spare time. In his first 25 years working for GM, Lew missed only two days of work until he broke his ankle wearing fashionable wingtip shoes as he ran with leftover cake from a Night Owl Party in December. And yes, the cake was that good.  Lew would work 10 more years before retiring with 35 years of service from GM. This retirement led to a second full-time career in interior remodeling.  Lew remodeled and designed so many homes for his family and friends, he was on a first-name basis with every employee at Home Depot. He designed and rebuilt kitchens, basements, bathrooms, and would upgrade your electrical box with ease.  From drywall, to paneling to painting, there wasn’t a space in your place that Lew would neglect.  Once he was done, all you had to do was look up to admire his signature design, the GLITTER POPCORN Ceiling.

Lew enjoyed listening to music and singing. His wife Phyllis loved it when he would sing TENOR…TEN OR twelve miles away from her! This support only drove him to continue singing…louder, longer and more frequently.  Since he wanted to entertain, he would design and build a basement MAN CAVE with a stocked BAR that had BUILT-IN SPEAKERS and DISCO LIGHTS.  And to protect the knees while sitting at the bar, Lew added SHAG CARPET to the front panels. Once the mancave was complete, you would hear THE DELLS, THE TEMPTATIONS or THE FOUR TOPS coming out of the basement, every day, at any time. He loved being the videographer/photographer at parties, holidays and celebrations.  He captured candid moments of his daughters Janice and Kim from infancy to adulthood. He would later turn this footage into DVDs to play for his guests every time they came to the house. His DVDs were over 4 hours long and contained about 3 minutes of his camera-shy daughter Patty.

Lew was hilarious as he enjoyed telling funny stories about his life. Known for reminding everyone that he played football with Jim Brown, that he replaced Smokey Robinson on tour when Smokey needed a break or that he was the real BILLY DEE WILLIAMS, his tall tales would leave you howling with laughter. With his unorthodox way of swearing, cutting his spaghetti and installing our light switches to read NO and FFO, Lew was one-of-a-kind. Lew, just like Phyllis, leaves behind a legacy of smiles and a collection of outrageous sayings that will continue to tickle our funny bones for years to come.

He was a loving husband to his wife Phyllis for 62 years. They loved to travel with friends and family, especially to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and throw parties as members of the Night Owls.  He made sure his family had the finer things in life. He installed a telephone in every room, including the bathrooms and the garage. Every television in the house was connected to cable and once Lew dug a trench from the house to the shed, they had cable tv outside.  He and his friends would playfully call each other names, like big dummy and fool, and exchange gag gifts, like a jive-turkey hat and a personalized pig mug.  He was an awesome, caring and fun father to his children. He loved and valued all his nieces, nephews, grandchildren, friends.

He departed this life on February 9^th, 2025. He is preceded in death by his wife, Phyllis R Shelton; his parents, William and Nellie; his sisters Georgia Brown, Ethel Brown, Florance Razeeq; his brothers Albert Brown, William Shelton, Leon Shelton, Herbert Shelton and Joseph Shelton.  Lewis leaves to cherish wonderful memories to his daughters; Valerie Shows, Janice Wallace, Kim Shelton and Patty Shelton-Wimberly (William); grandchildren, Erica “Zoe” Wallace, Justin “Tuffy” Bryant and Camille “Cami” Reynolds. He is also survived by his sister Beatrice Minor, best friend, Ernest ‘The FAKE Billy Dee’ Kennedy, sisters-in-law; Lolita Brown (Albert), Daphne Shelton (William), Judith Davis, Gayle ‘Trina’ Vaughn, and a host of nieces, nephews, grandchildren and friends.