Eleanor Louise Mitchell

MITCHELL

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/31/2020 at 15:49:26

Eleanor Louise Mitchell, age 78, of Phoenix, Arizona, passed away peacefully at her home on Tuesday, February 4, 2020. The oldest of four children, Elle was born in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from DePauw University, where she met her husband. After stints in Connecticut, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., they eventually settled in Albuquerque, NM, where they raised four children.

Smart, generous, and compassionate, Elle was the consummate conversationalist (she is probably chatting up Kirk Douglas at this moment). Though elegant and graceful, she loved getting her hands dirty in the garden. She would spend hours, soaking up the New Mexico sun, lovingly tending her penstemons, roses, and daffodils. Well into her sixties, she would swim 100 laps a day, outpacing a twenty-year-old after the first lap. She found peace through her Christian faith and in the congregations of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque and later, at Orangewood Presbyterian Church in Phoenix.

She was a lifelong learner, earning a Master of Arts in Landscape Architecture from the University of New Mexico, and later, taking classes in literature, history, art, and economics. She was also a lifelong volunteer, dedicating countless hours to tutoring students at Madison Simis Elementary, delivering Meals-on-Wheels to people who are homebound, and—most importantly—to the Albuquerque Open Space program. In the 1980s, she and her colleagues convinced a chamber orchestra to perform a concert near Vulcan Volcano and sponsored "walk and talk" lectures on the escarpment by geologists, anthropologists, and biologists. Through this work, she and others eventually convinced the City to acquire the four volcanos on the West Mesa as well as the Piedras Marcadas Canyon, saving thousands of ancient petroglyphs.

Elle found her greatest joy in life as a mother and grandmother. Decade after decade, she churned out homemade Halloween costumes, including a butterfly, caveman, Jeep, alien, robot, cowboy, police officer, two ghosts, and at least three fairies. She loved to read to her children and grandchildren, to encourage them in their academic and intellectual pursuits, and to comfort them when they were in need.

She is reunited with her first-born, Dr. Steven Michael Mitchell, who passed away in the summer of 2018, and with her sister, Merry Jane Derrow, who passed just three weeks ago. She is survived by her children Timothy Mitchell, Molly (James) Greene, and Matthew (Megan) Mitchell; her grandchildren Mitch, Jamie, Will, Maggie, Libby, and Stevie; her sister Julie Jackson; her nieces Sarah and Andrea; and her nephews Dan and Wes.

Elle's gracious manner, delightful good humor, and thoughtful conversations will be dearly missed. We are deeply grateful to have had her in our lives.