Behind the Badge
Kelly Shelton was giving her husband grief.
There he was, lying in a hospital bed gravely ill, when he told her he was bummed about not mailing in his ballot for the Nov. 8 election.
Ken Shelton, a die-hard patriot and Republican, had received his ballot but fell ill before he had gotten a chance to fill it out.
“Don’t worry, honey,” Kelly told her husband of nearly 12 years — a longtime reserve officer for the Anaheim PD who also worked full time at Disneyland as a security guard. “I will fill it out for you and vote for Hillary.”
Ken Shelton’s eyes got really big.
The exchange was typical for the Sheltons, who loved to badger each other and engage in good-natured banter — two people with absolutely nothing in common who met online, fell in love and enjoyed a spectacular marriage.
Ken Shelton died Oct. 19 from pancreatic cancer. He was 54.
It all happened so fast.
Ken Shelton as an Anaheim PD reserve officer in 1991. Photo courtesy of Kelly Shelton
***
Kelly Shelton, 60, an executive assistant to Costa Mesa CEO Tom Hatch, was married for nearly 20 years before she met Ken.
That marriage, which produced three children, sadly ended up in pieces.
Kelly was a mess for a while and still was putting herself back together several years later when she met Ken.
“I’m here to help you heal,” Ken told her.
They first met at her apartment in West Covina, her hometown, after talking on the phone for several days.
Kelly told Ken she loved country music.
“Death before country music,” replied Ken, a fan of ’80s rock.
Their first date was a Toby Keith concert.
Kelly converted him.
At their wedding on Nov. 12, 2004, Ken’s dog, a stray Jack Russell named Jumper, served as ring-bearer.
Ken, who grew up in Buena Park, had a hectic schedule that matched Kelly’s. Both movie lovers, they saved every Sunday for date day.
Sometimes they would see two or more movies in a row after breakfast at Knowlwood, where Ken inevitably would order chicken-fried steak.
Ken loved action movies but also stupid and raunchy comedies. His laugh was so loud it brought him to tears and would crack up other moviegoers.
Every year, the Sheltons would vacation together for two weeks. They often went to the East Coast where Ken, a history and war buff who served in the Army as a military policeman before his APD career, would drag Kelly around to historical spots, including taking his wife on a “dead presidents’ tour of gravesites.
The Sheltons were planning to go to Boston, followed by a Disney cruise, in early October.
But Ken, who had been feeling off for about two months, started feeling worse.
Kelly Shelton, wife of Anaheim PD Reserve Officer Ken Shelton, holds up a photograph of her and her husband.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
He had trouble sleeping and difficulty breathing while lying down.
Kelly took Ken to urgent care where, initially, the doctor had no clue what was wrong.
A CT scan, however, revealed the grim reality: a large mass in Ken’s stomach, a mass the size of an adult fist in his pancreas, liver and spleen, and other cancerous growths behind Ken’s abdominal wall.
On Wednesday, Oct. 12, Ken was admitted to Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim.
By Thursday evening, after 14 liters of fluid had been drained from his abdomen, he was on life support.
“We knew he was sick and we knew it was going to be a battle — I had gotten him prepared,” Kelly recalled recently at the home she shared with Ken in Corona for seven years.
“We were going to take baby steps and get through one obstacle at a time,” Kelly said as rain fell and thunder roared. “All he kept saying was, ‘I just want to fight. I just want to be able to fight. I don’t want them to tell me there’s nothing they can do.’ And we had gotten through that. And he would say, ‘I don’t want to die.’
“And I would tell him, ‘Ken, you’re not dead now. You are here now and you will be here tomorrow. And we’re going to take it one step at a time.’”
One of the last conversations the couple had when Ken was awake was about the voting ballot he regretted not filling out.
“For me not realizing at the time that was going to be my last conversation with him – that’s the hardest thing,” said Kelly, choking up.
***
Kelly talked to Ken constantly when he was on life support.
From that Thursday to when Ken died Oct. 19, more than 50 Anaheim PD officers visited him and Kelly, Ken’s mother, Annette, older brother, Ron, and Ken’s sister, Suzanne.
The outpouring of support from Ken’s law enforcement family surprised Kelly.
“It was overwhelming,” she recalled. “Ken used to always say, ‘I’m just a reserve.’ But the officers at the hospital were like, ‘Are you kidding me? We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without him being part of our family.’”
***
Kenneth Lee Shelton initially wanted to be a firefighter after graduating from Savannah High School in Anaheim, where he played trombone in the marching band. He enrolled in Golden West College’s Fire Academy but decided the job wasn’t for him.
He joined the Army and was considering a career in the military but that changed when his father, James, got sick and died at 56. Ken decided to move in with his mother and help her. He also wanted to be around his growing number of nieces and nephews in Southern California.
Ken Shelton in a photo from November 2015. Photo courtesy of Kelly Shelton
Ken landed a job as a security guard at Knott’s Berry Farm and then at Disneyland, where he worked for 27 years.
While working full time at Disneyland, Ken served as an APD reserve officer, a career that lasted nearly 26 years. For the last 12 or so of those years, Ken was a fixture at Anaheim City Council meetings, serving in his APD role as sergeant at arms.
***
Kelly wishes dearly she had more time with Ken.
Before he was taken off life support, Kelly told Ken goodbye.
“He had told me earlier he felt like he didn’t measure up to being the best husband,” Kelly said. “I told him that he had given me more happiness and love than I had felt in my entire life, and that he had always, always let me know how much he loved and cherished me. And that was more than any wife could ask for.
“And then I told him that I loved him so very much.”
There were some light moments at the hospital during the 24 or so hours before Ken coded and had to be put on life support.
“Kelly,” Ken said while lying in bed, “I have no underwear on.”
Kelly assured him he was covered.
“Find my underwear. My ass hurts.”
Kelly got in Ken’s face and told him he didn’t need his underwear.
“OK, honey.”
“You gave in?”
“Don’t get used to it.”
The business cards of several of the APD officers who visited Ken and Kelly in the hospital were scattered on the top of the kitchen table as Kelly talked about her late husband.
Anaheim PD Reserve Officer Ken Shelton with family members in November 2015. Photo courtesy of Kelly Shelton
She recalls the first visitor, Sgt. Salvador Enriquez.
“The watch commander has sent me here to check on you,” Enriquez told her. “I need to know what you need. I’m going to stay with you until the chaplain gets here.”
Kelly wasn’t expecting such support.
“I was overwhelmed,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
After her divorce, Kelly had to learn to do everything herself. It’s not natural for her to accept help.
She eventually yielded.
“Ken loved law enforcement,” Kelly said. “He loved being part of that family. He wished he could have done more (for the APD).”
***
Kelly recalled Ken’s words when they met.
I’m here to help you heal.
Try as they may, the doctors, nurses and other staff members at Kaiser couldn’t heal Ken. Kelly praised them, saying they couldn’t have been more supportive and caring.
She cried when she talked about the six grandchildren Ken will sorely miss and the two that are on the way.
“We thought we had more time,” she said.
A smile lit up her eyes.
“Ken always said that he wanted me to die before him,” Kelly said, “because he never wanted another man to put his hands on me.”
She then broke into a deep laugh — one that could fill a movie theater.
“I told him, ‘That’s being selfish.’”
“Yep,” Ken told her.
The public is invited to attend a memorial service celebrating the life of Ken Shelton on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. at Vineyard Church of Anaheim, 5340 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim CA 92807. Graveside service will follow at Riverside National Cemetery, 2 p.m., 22495 Van Buren Blvd., Riverside CA 92518. A viewing will be held Wednesday, Nov. 2 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Hilgenfeld Mortuary, 120 E. Broadway Anaheim, CA 92805. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Ken’s memory to a charity supporting animal welfare, the Make-A-Wish Foundation or your favorite charity.
Kelly Shelton, wife of Anaheim PD Reserve Officer Ken Shelton, smiles as she talks about her husband next to flowers sent to her by relatives and various police agencies.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
