Marilyn Mitchell

Marilyn was born July 6, 1939, in Takoma Park, Maryland to Virginia Rose Wagner McBurney and John Wade McBurney. She spent most of her young life in Washington, Pennsylvania, later Coral, Pennsylvania, and attended college at Slippery Rock University and California State Teachers College in California, Pennsylvania. She was a PA girl through and through! In 1965, she set off on the biggest adventure of her life and moved from her small town to the big city, Miami, Florida, where she took her first teaching job at Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami. Teaching at Dunbar was one of the most gratifying chapters of her life. She quickly became an important piece of the Dunbar family and surrounding community. She continued at Dunbar until she retired after 32 years of teaching in 1997. She liked to joke that she knew it was time to retire when she was teaching the grandkids of kids she taught in those early years.

A few years after moving to Miami, in 1969, she met and married (just three short months later!) David Paul Mitchell, who would come to be known as "The Plumber." Throughout their 56 years of marriage, they had countless adventures and laughs and, most importantly, an unbreakable friendship and commitment to each other that only grew deeper through the birth of their daughter Kelly in 1974, big moves to Rabun County, GA, and then Weaverville, NC, retirement for both, a major hurricane or two, a pandemic, and just quiet nights sitting around watching Miami Heat games on TV.

In 2010, Marilyn became Gammy...wait, Meme...to her beloved granddaughter, Ella Rose, which was her absolute favorite and most important job yet.

She is survived by her husband of 56 years, David Mitchell, her daughter and best friend Kelly Mitchell Schwartz, son-in-law-she-loved-as-her-own Alan Schwartz, her only grandchild and light of her life, Ella Rose Schwartz, and countless cousins and friends. Marilyn was loved beyond measure and is too big of a spirit to be forgotten. Her incredible sense of humor, kindness, and generosity will be cherished forever by those that knew and loved her. 

Marilyn was adamant about not wanting a service where "people are standing around crying about me." She did things her way to the very end! In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to her favorite non-profit Food Connection at https://food-connection.org or PO Box 8324, Asheville, NC 28814.

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