CHICO — Retired California legislator and retired television broadcaster Stan Statham, 81, has died.
Statham was found in his Oak Run home east of Redding on Saturday, Aug. 1, according to his son.
He was news director and anchor for KHSL-TV, and later served several terms in the California Assembly. He is remembered as a statesman who could listen to other opinions without bringing politics into it.
He also was recognized as one of the early advocates for dividing California into separate states to respect rural communities’ rights.
Statham was born April 7, 1939, in Chico and attended Chico Senior High School. He was in the Army Military Intelligence Service in Berlin in 1959, and got into banking before entering television broadcasting. He worked for KHSL-TV in Chico as news director and news anchor, from 1965 to 1975.
A Republican based in Redding, he was elected to the state Assembly for two terms but from different districts. He served from 1976 to 1994, and then ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor.
In his self-written obituary, Statham recalls then-Gov. George Deukmejian signing into law his proposal for the state-funded Brown Bag program, which provided surplus and donated edible fruits, vegetables and other food products to low-income individuals 60 years and older.
In 1989, Statham was appointed by Speaker Willie Brown to chair the new Assembly Television Committee, and he helped create a live television feed of Assembly proceedings.
After his legislative assistant was killed by a drunk driver, he began a campaign to reform and strengthen many of the state’s drunk driving laws and saw the increase in fines for convicted drunk drivers, according to his obituary. He served on President Ronald Reagan’s Commission on Drunk Driving.
After leaving the lawmaking arena, he was hired as executive director of the California Broadcasters Association. Among his duties was moderating the state’s gubernatorial debates. He retired from the association around 2015.
Friend Dino Corbin of Deer Creek Broadcasting in Chico, remembers Statham.
“I was at Channel 12 when he was an anchor. After Stan went into the Legislature and then was termed out, we remained friends.”
Corbin, who was president of the California Broadcasters Association, hired Statham as executive director for the association.
“I think he’d like to be remembered as a person who cared about his community. He used his position in the media and Legislature to better his communities and the people who lived in those communities,” said Corbin on Thursday.
“He absolutely was a statesman. Stan could talk with people on both sides of the aisle.”
Corbin said Statham was one of the few legislators in California who actually brought a proposal to split the state to the Assembly floor for a vote. He created two proposals, one to divide the state in two, the other into three parts. Neither were successful.
Corbin said Statham was perfect to lead the California Broadcasters Association, because “He knew the halls, was respected and was a broadcaster. He could have a reasonable conversation with anyone across the hallway.”
“Stan was pretty singular,” California State Library communications manager Alex Vassar told the Red Bluff Daily News.
“Of the nearly 3,800 people who have served in the California State Assembly since 1849, Stan was the 38th longest serving. At the time of his death, there were only three other living former legislators who had spent more time in the lower house.”
For a number of years, Statham wrote a column for the Red Bluff Daily News, according to editor Chip Thompson.
Statham leaves his wife, Roleeda Statham, son Devin Statham, daughter Jennifer Hejsek, numerous grandchildren, stepchildren and a great-granddaughter.
Because of coronavirus, there will be no public services at the moment, but the family is working on an observance for the future, according to his son.
