Dr. Duane E. MITCHELL was born on August 11, 1922, the son of Burt and Audrey MITCHELL, and the brother of Ada Ray, Georgia (MITCHELL) FRIDAY, Robert, Dale, and Doris (MITCHELL) ARNOLD.

He grew up in Worth County, Missouri, and graduated from Grant City High School in 1940. In August of 1940, he joined the Missouri National Gaurd. His initial term of enlistment was to be one year, but since war was in the making, his service was extended 18 months, bringing him up to December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

In January of 1942, MITCHELL was among a group of men who were transferred to the Air Corps which were to join the Army Corps Cadet Traning and be on stand by for training into the Air Force.

Dr. MITCHELL and Joy ADAMS were united in marriage in June of 1942. By fall, he was called back to the Air Force for training. Upon injuring his ankle during training, he was reclassified as a navigator. Joy traveled by bus to where he was in training, and found jobs at various locations throughout the southeast United States. In November of 1943, MITCHELL graduated as a Second Lieutenant.

MITCHELL was a member of a crew that flew 29 missions over Germany during World War II. On the 29th mission, his plane was sot down and he was captured and held as a prisoner of war. He spent one year as a POW in a German hospital until General George S. PATTON and his command liberated him in April of 1945. Once his condition was stabilized, MITCHELL flew back to the United States aboard a hospital plane. MITCHELL said that landing in New York was a "great, great feeling." After spending some time in an Army hospital in New York, he was flown to Topkea, Kansas, aboard a hospital plane.

Dr. MITCHELL and Joy returned to St. Joseph, Missouri after his discharge from the service. They moved to Columbia, Missouri, after Christmas of 1945 where Dr. MITCHELL entered college, deciding to attempt to enter medical school. He studied pre-med at Columbia, then medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Dr. MITCHELL opened a medical practice in Mount Ayr on July 1, 1953 with Dr. Howard RODGERS on the west side of the town square. They were later joined by Dr. Herman HAUSHEER. Eventually Dr. RODGERS and Dr. HAUSHEER went to Kansas City to practice in other areas of medicine. Sometimes Dr. MITCHELL practiced medicine alone, other times he was associated with other doctors. Dr. MITCHELL feels very honored to have practiced medicine with Dr. HILL from Mount Ayr, Dr. WATSON from Diagonal, and Dr. FULLERTON from Redding. He feels that he learned a lot from these doctors in an area where there wasn't much technology.

During his 42 years of dedicated service to Mount Ayr and the surrounding community, Dr. MITCHELL delivered thousands of babies, including four of his own grandchildren. Dr. MITCHELL is very proud of his 33 years of service on the board of Southwestern Community College; he served with Dr. Roy BROWN from Osceola who had been superintendent when he was in high school at Grant City.

Dr. MITCHELL's family includes his wife Joy, daughter Cherri, born in 1947, and son Steve, born in 1952.

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, July 27, 1995

Ringgold County Hospital is saying goodbye to Dr. Duane MITCHELL who will be retiring after 32 years of medical practice in the county. He says that he and his wife, Joy, plan on continuing to live in Mount Ayr but everyone who has enjoyed his care and company at the hospital will still be sad to see him go.

Dr. MITCHELL graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1952 with Dr. Howard RODGERS, a classmate and friend of his. The two planned to go into medical practice in Mount Ayr after finishing an internship at Kansas City General Hospital.

Dr. MITCHELL, who was born and raised in Missouri, went into the National Guard in 1940, planning to spend only one year in service. However because of World War II, MITCHELL was transferred to the air force in 1942 and trained as a navigator.

His crew saw battle many times, doing 29 missions in Germany. He thought he was home free on his last mission but his plane was shot down and he was taken as a prisoner of war for one year in Germany.

Luckily, Dr. MITCHELL and his fellow prisoners were liberated by General George PATTON and flown back to the United States where MITCHELL then dropped out of the air force.

He came back to Denver, MO where he married his wife, Joy ADAMS, and began to raise a family as he completed medical school. He and his wife had two children, a son and a daughter, and Dr. MITCHELL was ready to begin a practice of his own.

He came to Mount Ayr and he and a colleague became the eighth and ninth doctors in the county as they waited for Dr. RODGERS, whom MITCHELL had planned to go into practice with, to return from his service in the military.

Dr. RODGERS came back from the army and joined the practice with Dr. MITCHELL and his other collague, Dr. Herman HAUSHEER. The three of them worked together until Dr. RODGERS and Dr. HAUSHEER decided to go to kansas City and took up other areas of medicine.

MITCHELL continued to work in Mount Ayr, where he had five other doctors alongside him over the years. He worked alone for a time.

For many years, he and Dr. Roy FELL were the only doctors in the county. As of now, there are five.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2012