Ellen Mitchell

Ellen H Mitchell, 91, of Conway, Arkansas, went to be with the Lord, September 6, 2025. She was born on April 28, 1934, in Kansas City, Missouri. Ellen was preceded in death by her husband Dr. Richard S. Mitchell, her brother Robert B. Houston, and her parents Dr. Bruce Houston and Elinor Emmy (Rogers) Houston.

Ellen was adopted by Bruce and Elinor Houston when she was two weeks old. Her new father was a professor at the University of Oklahoma, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. Two years later, her parents adopted a baby boy.

Ellen attended elementary school and high school in Norman, Oklahoma, and began classes at Oklahoma University; however, at 18, she left university to marry James Lewis (Jim) Vernon. The marriage did not last but did leave her with two daughters, Carol and Susan. Not many years later, she met and married Richard Mitchell, who became a father to her girls in every way that mattered. He and Ellen had two more children together, a girl Leslie Karen and a boy, Steven Richard. The family moved to Jonesboro, AR. in 1964. Ellen and Dick lived there until 2019 when they moved first to Little Rock and eventually to Conway, AR.

While Ellen never received a college degree, she was a life-long learner. She sometimes referred to herself as a “domestic engineer.” One of her joys was reading stories and telling stories to her children and grandchildren. After the death of her husband, when she was 90 years old, she embarked on a new adventure by writing down the stories she used to tell her younger two children and publishing them in a book of short stories. They featured a small intrepid hero named Butter Yellow Mouse. After the book was published, Ellen would say with a smile, that she was a “domestic engineer and an author.”

Ellen and Richard received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the early 70’s. Since then, hers was a life of service to the Lord. Early in this spiritual journey, when asked, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” Ellen’s response was, “I would do something to help the sad and lonely people I see around me every day.” This guided her volunteer work, her work in the church, and her ministry to the women incarcerated in the McPherson Unit of the Arkansas Department of Corrections. There is no way to really know the full extent and impact of her work since helping and counseling one individual also helped everyone in that person’s family, their children, their children’s children, and all the people whose lives they touch.

Ellen is survived by her children, Carol Griffin (David), Susan Vernon, Leslie Karen Minick (David), and Steven Richard Mitchell (Lisa). She will live in their hearts, in the hearts of her grandchildren, Mitch Taylor (Taylor), Mark Taylor, Leah Taylor, Chloe Mitchell, Lydia Mitchell, Elyse Mitchell, Kayla Minick, Daniel Minick, Bryan Foster (Tracy), and Aaron Griffin (Mary), in the hearts of her great-grandchildren Kyler and Bryson Foster and Conner David Griffin, and in the hearts of her many nieces and nephews. She will be remembered with love by many friends.

The family asked that in lieu of flowers - and in Ellen’s generous spirit –donations be made to the Special Needs Trust for Mark Webb, for one of her beloved nephews. The Venmo account is MarkWebb Trust@MarkWebbTrust.

A memorial service will be held in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on November 8, 2025, at Emerson Funeral Home in Jonesboro, AR at 2:00 pm. Visitation with the family will be from 1:00 pm until 2:00 pm.