Lela Mae Mitchell

Services for Kiowa County native Lela Mae George Mitchell will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, May 30, at First Baptist Church in Mountain View. Interment will follow later that day in Mountain View Cemetery. Mrs. Mitchell died Sunday, May 25, 2014, at Maple Lawn Manor in Hydro, Okla.

Lela Mae was born to W.I. and Flossie George on April 21, 1918, on her grandparents' farm southwest of Mountain View - the first member of her family to be born in Oklahoma. She attended the one-room Queen Esther and Rainy Valley schools before graduating from Gotebo High School in 1934 at the age of 16.

After attending Southwestern State Teachers College, she was hired for her first teaching job at Dixie, a rural Kiowa County school, in 1937-38. It was during this period she met and married Donald Mitchell, on Aug. 11, 1938. They made their home on a farm west of Mountain View, where they would live for more than 50 years.

Lela Mae served as teacher and principal of Star School, in Washita County, during World War II. After the war, she suspended her teaching career to raise her three children, although she continued to serve as a substitute in area schools from time-to-time. She returned to Southwestern State College, where she earned her bachelor's degree and was hired by Cooperton Valley School in 1966. She remained there until it consolidated in the early 1970s. Her final teaching position was at Mountain View Grade School in 1985.

Her teaching abilities earned her the award of Kiowa County Teacher of the Year during the 1967-68 school year. She was subsequently a nominee for 1968 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. She was also made an honorary Kiowa County 4-H Club member as a result of her leadership with the program during her years as an elementary teacher at Cooperton Valley.

In addition to her work in education, Mrs. Mitchell was active in her community over the years as a band parent, exhibit chair for the Mountain View Free Fair, and member of the Mountain View Home Demonstration Club, Business Women's Circle, and both the Monte Vista and Twentieth Century Federated Women's Clubs.

She was actively involved with her husband in their farming and ranching operation until his death in November 1989 after more than 51 years in marriage. She remained on the family farm for 23 more years, until declining health resulted in her relocation to Hydro.

Survivors include her children, Donald and Thedis Mitchell of Weatherford, Pat and Steve Fritz of Mountain View, and Keith and Terri Mitchell of Frederick; grandchildren Jack and Jeannine Mitchell of Lawton, Sonya Messer of Harrah, Okla., Damon and Rusty Mitchell of Mountain View, Misty George of Hobart, Dusti and Paul Gallagher of Wamego, Kan., Mandy and J.W. Gross of Stillwater, Okla.; Jeffrey and Sarah Mitchell of Jenks, Okla., Chase and Meosha Mitchell of Frederick, and Garrett Mitchell of Frederick; 16 great-grandchildren; her sister, Evalyn Smith of Oklahoma City; and a host of nieces, nephews and friends.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Frances Heller, and by grandson-in-law Gary George.