Mary Mitchell

Mary Atkinson Mitchell, age 98, died Thursday, September 9, at Lockwood Lodge Assisted Living in Newtown. She was born March 12, 1912 in Minneapolis, Minn., daughter of Dorothy (Bridgman) and Frederick G. Atkinson. She was predeceased by two brothers, Frederick Atkinson and William Atkinson, and by her husband of 48 years, Attorney William Mitchell of St. Paul, Minn. She is survived by her three daughters, Dorothy (Dottie) Mitchell Evans and her husband, John M. Evans of Newtown, Constance Mitchell of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Charlotte Merritt Mitchell of Middlefield. Her beloved grandchildren are Sarah Cassidy Evans Karasch and her husband, Boris I. Karasch of Buffalo, N.Y., John M. Evans, III and his wife, Elaine Dimopoulos, of Arlington, Mass. and William Mitchell Evans of Bethel. She also leaves a nephew, Jeff Atkinson, of Wilmette, Ill. After graduating in 1933 from Wellesley College with a major in history and English, Mary traveled abroad in 1934 to pursue a career in journalism. She lived with families in Munich and Freiburg and then traveled to Berlin and Poland, sending letters back to her hometown newspaper, The Minneapolis Tribune. Returning to Minnesota in 1937, she married Attorney William Mitchell of St Paul and the couple moved to White Bear Lake where they began raising a family. In 1953, Mary moved to Washington, D.C., where she lived for 35 years. She took up photography and began local historical research eventually publishing six books: Chronicles of Georgetown Life, 1865-1900 Glimpses of Georgetown, Past and Present; Washington: A Portrait Of A City; Annapolis Visit; Divided Town; and A Walk In Georgetown. Mary moved to Newtown in 1987 and quickly embraced the life of the town. She volunteered for FISH and joined the Flagpole Photographers Club where she met her good friend and hiking companion, Newtown resident, Al Goodrich, now deceased. Mary and Al co-authored three books: Touring Newtown's Past , (about the settlement and architecture of an old Connecticut town); Newtown Trails Book , (now in its fifth edition); and The Remarkable Hun-tingtons, the story of the marriage late in life of Archer Huntington, a New York City philanthropist, and Anna Hyatt, an artist and renowned sculptor from Greenwich Village. Ms Huntington's sculpture of Lincoln on horseback was a gift to the Bethel Library, and Huntington Park, which occupies portions of Redding, Bethel, and Newtown, is a legacy from the Huntington estate. A memorial celebra-tion is scheduled for Saturday, September 25, 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Newtown Historical Society, P.O. Box189, Newtown 06470, or to Kevin's Community Center, 153 South Main Street, Newtown 06470 will be greatly appreciated.