H.H. Chuck Belote shows off a cake and treats that he made one year for Christmas. Belote, an anesthetist in Lawrence for many years, was known for his talents in many other areas, including cooking, music and sewing. Belote died Sunday at age 81.

H.H. “Chuck” Belote provided relief to many Lawrence area residents during his career as an anesthetist for Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Watkins Health Center at Kansas University.

And when he worked as field commander for KU’s Stadium Spectators Emergency Unit, he wanted to be easily visible. So, he dressed in a white cowboy hat and white suit and drove a white golf cart.

“He was a pretty classy dresser and figured that would stand out,” said Dr. Gene Manahan, a retired surgeon and good friend of Belote.

Belote, who died Sunday at age 81, owned Citizens Ambulance Service, one of the first businesses to provide ambulance services outside of mortuaries.

Manahan said Belote bought a couple of hearses and ran the service from a house near LMH on Maine Street.

“Mortuaries were about to give up, and Lawrence would have been without an ambulance service” if it weren’t for Belote, he said.

Dr. Charles Yockey, of Lawrence, said he worked for Belote while he was in college.

“I learned more from Chuck about people and how to take care of people than I did in the first three years of medical school,” he said. “It was a great experience.”

Friends and family described Belote as a people person who had a soft heart.

“There are a lot of young men who are successful because of Chuck Belote,” Yockey said. “He basically would give them a job when nobody else would and he watched after them. It was really kind of neat.”

During his career, he served as director of Douglas County Civil Defense and director of Douglas County Emergency Service.

After he retired from the hospital in the 1980s, he operated The Shop, a tailoring business at 1901 Mass., for several years.

“He was an expert tailor,” Manahan said. “He made suits and jackets and everything.”

He also was an accomplished pianist and enjoyed dancing and cooking.

“He had a lot of energy,” Yockey said.