Janie Mitchell

Mrs. Janie Ladson Mitchell, our Centenarian went to be with the Lord, peacefully on August 17, 2022 at Southeastern Hospice House in Lumberton, North Carolina. She lived to the golden age of 109 years. Mrs. Janie was born in Plantersville, South Carolina ; a small community outside Conway, South Carolina. She was the youngest of 12 children. Her parents were Rosetta and Charlie Ladson. They moved to Fairmont, North Carolina around 1914 and this is where she made her home. Her parents enrolled her in Rosenwald School, which was one of several schools built in the South especially for black children. After her father passed away when she was just a child, her mother, a mid-wife raised her and her siblings alone. One of Mrs. Janie's earliest childhood memories as she recalled in an interview at one of her 100th birthdays with a reporter of the Robesonian was of her first grade teacher at Rosenwald Elementary School. "My first-grade teacher was named Janie Floyd," she said reminiscing with a smile. "She always had a little paddle". Ms. Mitchell walked every day to school. I would walk there and I'd walk back, and it was so cold in the winter.
Mrs. Janie was united in holy matrimony with Proctor Mitchell just shy of her 18th birthday. To this union three children were born. Her husband and two sons preceded her in death. While she did domestic work throughout her life, her husband worked selling coal in the winters and ice in the summers. She was employed mostly by the "Fisher" family in Fairmont who considered it a blessing to have someone of her character and integrity to be a role model and caretaker for their children. She was young at heart, had a quick, sharp mind and a lovely spirit. Mrs. Janie was a member of the Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church where she sang in the Choir, served on the Deaconess council, and the kitchen ministry. She loved to bake she admitted to a newspaper reporter while giving an interview once. Not revealing the name of her mentor, she admits that she learned how to bake from a lady in North Fairmont. "People would come to my house to purchase biscuits, cakes and pies, she said."
Mrs. Janie was one who loved to praise the Lord. Even until the end she would lift her very strong voice in praise to God. And she would acknowledge, "God has been good to me, all these years. Its a wonderful feeling to know that God blessed me with longevity and a reasonable portion of health and most of all "I'm in my right mind". I have lived to experience things like men walking on the moon, microwave ovens, Facebook, cell phones and to see Barack Obama become the President of the United States of America. Mrs. Janie was a member of the Queen of Hope Chapter #522 A-1 Eastern Star and also the Community Federation Club.
For the past few years Mrs. Janie lived a quiet life at the Lumberton Health and Rehabilitation Center. She enjoyed visits from her neighbor, Minnie McCormick who was just a child when they lived across the street from each other and that arrangement still exist today. Minnie cherished the time she spent with Mrs. Janie and loved her like a mother after her mother passed. Mrs. Janie also looked forward to visits from family, great-nieces and great-nephews, her pastor and members of the church family and numerous others who kept her informed of the happens in Fairmont. She loved singing old gospel hymns like she did at her church, which now is referred to as The Star . She had many favorite hymns but said "Yes, God is Real" and When We All Get to Heaven were her favorite's of all.
She has now added her link in the chain of death with her husband Proctor, her two sons Cleveland and Percy, her parents and all of her eleven siblings.
She leaves to cherish her memory one daughter, Ruth Yvonne McGill of Flint, Michigan; Her nine grandchildren, many great grand-children, her friend and caretakers for years, Minnie McCormick and Huel Faulk, and a host of other relatives and friends.
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