Individual Details

Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, February 25, 2005, Page 4 B: Little Rock, Ark. -- Virginia Rollwage Grobmyer Mitchell, 91, widow of William Starr Mitchell Jr., died Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005. Born with a positive spirit, nurtured by a grandmother who taught her God is love, Virginia was gifted with intellect and given the talents of writing, leadership and organization. Her home and family, the Episcopal Church, community organizations that invited her membership, and her eclectic array of friends benefited from these gifts.

Virginia's life was affected by every major event of the 20th century. She recalled when some of her German relatives in Arkansas changed their names during World War I. In 1931, she learned, a few weeks before departure for college, that the Great Depression would keep her from attending Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. Soon after Pearl Harbor, with a new infant and young toddler, she boarded a train to travel with her husband to three different states as he trained infantrymen for World War II. Events that followed the 1957 Little Rock desegregation of Central High closed the high school where her son would have had his junior year in 1958-59, when all Little Rock high schools were closed. It also propelled her husband, Will, into leadership of the STOP campaign (Stop This Outrageous Purge), for which they expected he would lose his job.

Instead, his leadership and the STOP campaign reopened the Little Rock schools. A decade later, their son landed for a nine-month tour of duty in Vietnam in the first days of the Tet Offensive.

The dining room table in her home has seated six generations of Mitchells. Around that table Virginia and Will passed on their faith, the power of family connections and stories, and the hospitality and manners of their Southern tradition. But when Southern traditions conflicted with doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with thy God, their children saw them thoughtfully depart from those ways, modeling respect for all. The strong connections of love and friendship that Virginia built through her life were blind to age.

During her last illness, she was nurtured by people of all generations who, with a gift of food, flowers or their time, received, in return, her gratefulness and loving encouragement for their own lives.

Virginia was preceded in death by her husband, Will, in November 1981; her parents; and three siblings, Elizabeth G. Stanton, John R. Grobmyer and Dorothy G. Tedford Bowen, all of Little Rock.

She is survived by her sister, Marilyn G. McLean of Alexandria, Va.; and her children, Frances Ross and her husband Bob Ross, Virginia Starr Mitchell and her husband George West, Marilyn Mitchell and Jeff Lewellyn, all of Little Rock, and Jim Mitchell, Kennebec Judge of Probate, and his wife, state Sen. Elizabeth "Libby," of Vassalboro, Maine. Her nine grandchildren are Mitchell Ross and wife Kelly, Virginia (Ginny) Deuschle and husband John, Mary Starr Ross, Logan West and Cane West, all of Little Rock; Charlie Mitchell and Lisa Prosienski of Washington, D.C.; and Elizabeth Mitchell and her husband, Alex Kriekhaus, Will Mitchell and his wife, Kristan, and Emily Mitchell and Michael Ritter, all of Portland, Maine. Her 11 great-grand children are Courtney and Mitchell Ross Jr.; Starr, Lila, Blakeslee and Hollis Virginia Deuschle, all of Little Rock; and Hannah Stein, Sophie and Abigail Kreikhaus, and James and Anna Virginia Mitchell, all of Portland.

In lieu of flowers, Virginia asked, for those wishing to make memorials, that gifts be made to Centers for Youth and Families, P.O. Box 251801, Little Rock, Ark. 72205; or St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, 20900 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock, Ark. 72223.

Birth	24 Nov 1913	Forrest City, St Francis Co., Arkansas
Marriage	26 Feb 1938	Little Rock, Pulaski Co., Arkansas - William Starr Mitchell Jr.
Death	19 Feb 2005	Little Rock, Pulaski Co., Arkansas
Burial		Oakland Cemetery, Little Rock, Pulaski Co., Arkansas

Spouse

William Starr Mitchell Jr. (1907 - 1981)

Father	John Rudolph Grobmyer Sr. (1885 - 1944)
Mother	Tolise Rollwage (1884 - 1958)
Sibling	Elizabeth Grobmyer (1908 - 1974)
Sibling	Dorothy Grobmyer (1912 - 2001)
Sibling	John Rudolph Grobmyer Jr. (1915 - 1998)
Sibling	Marilyn Grobmyer (1923 - 2005)