Mary Eloise Mitchell, known to her friends as Mary Rose or Mary Mitchell, passed away on June 6, 2006. She was born in Holly Grove, West Virginia, in the upper Kanawa Valley, on June 7, 1924, to Alec and Ella Mitchell. Her first memories were of living in a “coal camp,” a hamlet that housed poor miners and their families. Her male relatives were mostly solid members of the United Mine Workers union. Mary’s grandfather, Robert, was in fact a delegate at the first UMW convention. She spent most of her childhood in the town of Pratt. While in West Virginia, Mary graduated from East Bank High School, in East Bank, WV. After her father became wealthy, she attended and graduated from Greenbrier Junior College, in Lewisburg, WV. Later, she earned a degree in journalism from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. After her graduation, she applied to Al Rose for a job working at an advertising agency. She never got the job because she married him and became Mary Rose on November 15, 1948. They lived together on the road when Al was working as a publicist and often lived for long stretches in New Orleans, Louisiana; Key Largo Florida; or Hollywood, Florida. For a short time, Mary helped raise Al’s sons Frank and Pancho in Hollywood. Al Rose was a Jazz promoter, a cartoonist, and a noted New Orleans author and historian. Her only son, Rex Rose, was born on November 23, 1962. Mary divorced in about 1968. She moved to San Francisco, California in about 1980 and lived there for about 5 years until she returned to Hollywood, Florida permanently.
A feminist, an environmentalist, and a staunch civil rights supporter, Mary Mitchell was a liberal activist and proud of it. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in her younger years because a direct ancestor had signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but she resigned because a black singer was not allowed to sing in a DAR hall. In Florida, Mary piled her energies into helping Anne Kolb protect a vast wetland habitat from developers, and her efforts can still be appreciated with a visit to Westlake Park and the Anne Kolb Nature Center. Exercising her core feminist convictions, Mary became a board member of the Broward County League of Women Voters. She also belonged at different times to the Broward County Audubon Society, the South Florida Regional Planning Council Citizen’s Advisory Board, the Broward County Archaeological Society, the Broward County Humane Society, the Fort Lauderdale chapter of the American Association of University Women, and the Broward County Democratic Executive Committee. Her service also included a post on the board of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens. She was Secretary of the Central Council of Improvement Associations of Hollywood and served as Special Events Publicity Chairman at the Hollywood Art Museum.
By nature, Mary was a cultural being. She loved music, movies, books, travel, paintings, and cuisine. She studied sculpture with Joeseph Baumgarten, whose bust of Hollywood founder Joseph Young stands at City Hall today. As a fine photographer, Mary took most of her best pictures in Mexico, a country with which she had a longstanding love affair. She was also known as a fine cook.
She always encouraged plants and flowers to grow and always enjoyed being surrounded by growing things. She is survived by her son, Rex Rose, and a group of exceptional friends who will cherish her memory.
-Rex Rose
Article:
Reflections on a Marriage
A Poem by Mary Mitchell
I said I loved you
Your strength, your intellect, your wit
But that fragile part of you
So afraid of being known
Shrank away from me and wept alone
You said you loved me
So bright, so pretty, so sweet
But my tormented heart
Yearning to trust but not succeeding
Hid itself away from you and stayed forever needing
Never connecting, never suspecting
Two euphoric phantasies each of the other
And neither knowing
That calling snowflakes diamonds
Disavows the tender soul of snowing
There are 25 selected photographs below which may take a while to load, depending on your connection speed. Please allow a little time for loading. To save them to your PC hard drive, right click on them and choose to save them. On Mac, I think the command is Shift / Click and then Save. Thanks to everyone for being great friends to Mama.
