The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.



Meet Your Neighbor

by Misty Huston, The Quill

Meet your neighbor Melissa Stanton, who lives in Oquawka and has lived in Henderson County for the past sixteen years.

Melissa is a deputy clerk in the Circuit Clerks office of the Henderson County Courthouse. She previously worked at her husband's insurance office Stanton Insurance in Oquawka, for a time, and at Maple City Pottery in Monmouth until it closed.

She was born in Burlington, Iowa.

During her childhood, her family lived in Anchorage, Alaska for several years; a small town in Missouri called Mirabile, population of 362 whose name was derived from a Latin word meaning "wonderful". Later they lived in Burlington, Iowa.

She graduated from Mountain Park Academy in Patterson, Missouri.

Melissa is the daughter of Mike Edwards and Peggy (Ron) Hoyt, all residing in Burlington, Iowa.

She is the oldest of four children.

Her brother Travis Fahlgren lives in Cameron, NC with his wife Jennifer and their 1 year old son, Thorsten.

Travis is on active duty in the Air Force and currently stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. He has been in the service since 2000.

Her brother Justin Edwards lives in Burlington, IA and Nathan Edwards lives in Muscatine, IA.

In 2013, while her brother was stationed in Belgium, Melissa and her mother were able to travel there and spend a couple of weeks in Europe.

They visited Prague, in the Czech Republic, Krakow Poland, Auschwitz, Amsterdam and Paris, and France.

From start to finish they took 14 plane rides in as many days! It was an enlightening trip, filled with many memorable moments.

In August of 2014 Melissa married Jeff Stanton, formerly of Monmouth. They drove from Oquawka through the Rocky Mountains to Las Vegas for the big day.

Melissa recalls, "it was another amazing adventure."

They visited the Four Corners, the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam.

Jeff and Melissa have two dogs, Buddy and Dusty. They are spoiled rotten and tag along whenever possible.

The foursome spend a lot of time at the family catfish cabin, as they call it, during the warmer months of the year. They've done a lot of landscaping and enjoy feeding the songbirds, too. Pontoon rides are a regular occurrence as well.

And you're sure to catch Jeff smoking something for dinner on the Traeger grill every night.

There's an annual Memorial Day family fish fry, 4th of July cookout and many impromptu gatherings with family and friends there.

In her spare time, Melissa enjoys quilting, sewing, painting and basically all things crafty.

She also loves to cook and bake. She is a huge NASCAR fan and has been to three tracks so far.

Jeff and Melissa are members of the Red Wing Collector's Society. About every other year they take a road trip north to Red Wing, MN for the annual convention.

It's a gathering of pottery collectors and some fanatics, with auctions, flea markets and different scheduled events all dedicated to the craft.

Melissa says, "It's a beautiful town on the Mississippi River and we both enjoy returning whenever possible."