Memory Mitchell

My parents, Ed and Fran Rankin, were good friends of Memory. She and mom were at Meredith together and later we all belonged to Pullen Memorial. I knew of her work with the State but did not realize she had a law degree. As a woman attorney with @15 women in my class of 1975, I can only imagine the challenge Memory faced decades earlier. She wrote my mom kind Christmas cards in recent years, which mom so appreciated. I know mom would want to attend the memorial service if she were able, and...

I had the privilege of knowing Fannie Memory through my beloved aunt Alice Williams. In December 2010 these two 87-ish year old ladies took the train from Raleigh to Wash DC to spend a weekend at my home and to attend a Christmas concert at the Wash National Cathedral. What a weekend we had! Among other things my husband and I returned to our house after running an errand to find the two ladies outside trying to catch my cat, who had darted out the door whrn they opened. It was a...

I was hired by Mrs. Mitchell to work at The then Department of Archives and History in 1971. In time I became friends with her and her legendary husband Thornton Mitchell. Mitch (as I called him) was my roommate during many an out of state trip to archival meetings. I was a dinner guest in the Mitchell home through the years. The passing of Fannie Memory, Mitch, and their colleague H. G. Jones is truly the end of an era of professional historians who preserved the history of North Carolina in...

I worked for Mrs. Mitchell for several years. She was always neatly dressed, and I enjoyed seeingwhich matching earrings and necklace set she would be wearing. She gave me start in Historical Publications and through her I met my future husband. She was smart, blessed with a dry wit, and supportive of the women on her staff. I want her family to know how much she is remembered and appreciated.