Josephine K. Mitchell 1904-2002

MITCHELL KELSEY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 7/13/2011 at 00:41:20

Sioux City Journal
23 June 2002

SMITHLAND, Iowa -- Josephine K. Mitchell, 97, of Smithland died Thursday, June 20, 2002, at Maple Heights Nursing Home in Mapleton, Iowa.

Memorial services will be 1 p.m. Monday at Smithland United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Karen Handke officiating. Burial will be in Willow Township Cemetery, Holly Springs, Iowa. There will be a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. today at Willman Funeral Home in Rodney, Iowa.

Mrs. Mitchell was born Nov. 23, 1904, in Becker County, Minn., the daughter of George and Edna Kelsey. In 1908, the family moved to Iowa and the Kelsey farm west of Smithland.

She attended Lum Hollow Country School, then Smithland Consolidated School. She graduated from high school in 1921 and from Morningside College in 1930. She taught school for 30 years, 29 years in Iowa and one year in Florida. For the last 17 years of her career, she taught the sixth grade in Smithland, retiring in 1969.

She married Saul Mitchell at the Kelsey home on June 1, 1937. They lived in Correctionville, Iowa, until 1941, when they moved to Pensacola, Fla., where both were employed at the NATB.

In 1951, they returned to Iowa and bought a farm west of Smithland, where they resided until Mr. Mitchell's death in 1991. She then moved into Smithland.

She was a member of the Methodist church since childhood and of the Smithland United Methodist Church since 1915. She was an active member of the United Methodist Women and a member of Evergreen Chapter Order of the Eastern Star from 1948 until it closed in 1973.

Survivors include two brothers, Deane Kelsey and his wife, Jeanette of Smithland, and Harry Kelsey of Port Orange, Fla.; several nieces and nephews; and many students and friends.

She also was preceded in death by four brothers, Charles, Bruce, Ward and Gene Kelsey; and two sisters, Mable Hall and Gertrude Cory.