SERVICE
Hill & Son Funeral Home in
Appleton City, Missouri on
Saturday, December 29, 2007 at
11:00 a.m.

MINISTER
Pastor David Hackett

VISITATION
Hill & Son Funeral Home in
Appleton City, Missouri on
Friday, December 28, 2007 between
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

INTERMENT
Montrose Cemetery in
Montrose, Missouri

MEMORIAL
American Cancer Society

Lorene Mitchel departed from this life on Christmas Day, December 25, 2007. She was born January 8, 1934 to Dewey Logan and Pearlie Mae (Mullins) Smith on a snowy day before her father could get back to the house with the doctor. She was the middle of seven children. Growing up she discovered that Santa Claus stored Christmas gifts for her and her siblings in an old house close to their home. She and her bothers and sisters would walk out of their holler to a one room school. She liked school so much that one snowy day she was the only one to show up for school. It was too bad out for even the teacher to get to school. After completing her elementary education she attended high school in Grundy. During high school, she remembered sharing clothes with her younger sister, Pat, making it appear that they both had a larger wardrobe. After graduating she went to college in Radford, Virginia with her aunt Agnes for a semester. Not having the funds to continue, she took a job teaching elementary school. Not long after she went to live in St. Louis with her older sister, Dorothy and her family. Later she moved into a Salvation Army home for single women. While living there she was set up on a blind date that ended up being her husband six months later. She married Delmer Mitchel or Mitch as she called him, on his birthday, June 20, 1956 in Grundy, Virginia. They moved around living for short times in Rolla, Missouri, Denver, Colorado, and Detroit, Michigan before moving to the farm in Montrose, Missouri where she lived for over 40 years. A few years after her husband died she moved to Grain Valley to be near her daughter and family.
Lorene worked as a bookkeeper for Freuhauf, Wholesome Bakeries and Calhoun Hatchery. She later worked as a cook for the Montrose Public School. In 1968 Lorene and Delmer adopted their son, Michael, who arrived home with much celebration. Then in 1970 they adopted their daughter, Kathryn, keeping quiet about her arrival and surprising everyone especially Delmer's mother who thought they were babysitting. Lorene kept herself busy with gardening, attending "Club" meetings, volunteering at the Samaritan Center, helping with the Senior Luncheons, and going out to eat with her girlfriends. She enjoyed making and hostessing family dinners on birthdays and holidays.
Lorene was preceded in death by her husband Delmer, her parents, older sister Dorothy; four brothers-in-law and three sisters-in-law: Gorden Baker, Wallace Blankenship, Rosella Smith, Fred and Dortha Eye, and Ray and Helen Mitchel. She is survived by her children Michael Mitchel and Kathryn and husband Michael Hackett; five grandchildren, Tony Davis, Nickolas Mitchel, Sara Mitchel, James Strickler and Sophia Hackett; three brothers, Vern Smith and wife Marion, Ray Smith and wife Juanita and Roger Smith and wife Mina; two sisters, Patricia Blankenship, Betty and husband Jim Bowie; and a brother-in-law and sister-in-law John and Aileen Mitchel; a host of nieces and nephews.