William Stedman

William Joe Stedman - a bluegrass musician, retired dentist, father, grandfather, former Marine and fisherman - died at home on Christmas Eve with his family. He was 77.Known as Doc or Billy Joe, he was an outgoing guy who talked to his patients while working on their teeth, called his kids just to talk about the cranes he saw at Goose Pond, and stirred so many arguments with his lunch bunch that he earned the Lifetime Agitator Award.He took pleasure in the small things - a recording of his granddaughter's laugh, an unusual bird landing on the feeder and learning a new song on the banjo.He was born Aug. 3, 1937 in Sullivan to William and Mary Alyce (Slinkard) Stedman. The family lived then in New Lebanon but would move with his two sisters in and around Sullivan County as Bill grew up. He went fishing with his grandpa, hunting with his dad, got into trouble with the Ridge boys and learned to play the ukulele. As a senior at Gill Township High School, he played on a basketball team that won the sectionals in Sullivan, the first time either Merom or New Lebanon - the schools that consolidated into the high school - had won the first round title.Bill went for a quarter to Indiana State Teachers College before he ran out of money. So he joined the Marines for two years - and later became a charter member of the Knox County Detachment of the Marine Corps League - before coming home and graduating from Indiana State. He went to the Indiana University School of Dentistry in Indianapolis, where he and Bill Johnson spent their time searching for free things to do, including a tour of the water treatment plant and an examination of an electron microscope donated to the school by the Elks, of which he was a member.After graduation in 1965, Bill practiced briefly in Indianapolis before buying a practice in downtown Vincennes, where he would serve patients for 46 years until his retirement in 2011. He was known for long appointments dominated by chitchat about family and friends and he spent his breakfasts and lunches in downtown diners instigating debates. He met Rosalyn Winstanley in 1966 and asked her to marry him while they were stuck with a flat tire. They married in 1968 and had two daughters, whom he taught to identify trees and birds, bait a hook and always play fair.Bill played the banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica and bass and belonged to two bluegrass and folk bands that played music throughout the region: The Good Ol' Boys and Mariah Creek. He launched and organized the Old Post Bluegrass Jam, a local show and music jam that brings hundreds of people to Vincennes University annually.He was a sports enthusiast and could just as likely have been found at an 8th grade volleyball match as a high school basketball game. He held season tickets for Lincoln boy's basketball for decades and published the book 90 Years of Alices celebrating the team's achievements. He attended nearly every IHSAA boys' basketball championship since the early 1960s (he missed one for a daughter's wedding), served as an associate board member for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and was active in the Indiana High School Basketball Historical Society. He always sought to recognize local athletes who had done well - buying an ad in the paper to wish players good luck, shooting photos of local championship wrestlers for the newspaper, and once arranging for Ed Prullage, a member of the 1923 Lincoln state championship team, to be honored in Indianapolis on the 73rd anniversary of the game.As he slowed down, a victim of heart disease, Bill focused on photography, fishing and music - and his twin granddaughters who became the light of his life.Bill was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Joan Monk. He is survived by his wife, Rosalyn; a sister, Barbara Roe; his daughters, Lesley Weidenbener and her husbnd Jeff and Shelby Kapellusch and her husband Brent; and two granddaughters, Claire and Erin Kapellusch. Friends may visit with Bill's family from Noon until 4:00 pm on Saturday, January 3, 2015 at the Fortnightly Building, 421, N. 6th Street, Vincennes, IN. There will be a memorial service starting at 4:00 pm. In Lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Knox County Community Foundation, P.O. Box 273, Vincennes, IN 47591 in memory of Dr. Bill Stedman for a grant or scholarship program to be established.