Anita Newman Mitchell passed away peacefully in her home in Norfolk, Virginia with family on Monday, May 4, 2020.
She was the daughter of Dorothy Francis Crutsinger Kite and Bernard John Messing; the mother of Gray Newman, Grace Myers and Alexandra Faith Newman; the grandmother of Jason Myers and Rachel Kovacyk; the great-grandmother of Austyn and Landon Kovacyk; the mother-in-law of David Trejo, Jeff Myers and Laura Witham and grandmother-in-law of Bailey Myers and Nicholas Kovacyk; and loved by stepdaughter-in-law Beulah Mitchell, grandchildren Christine Mitchell, Marie Davis and Robert Mitchell III and great-grandchildren Brittany Webb, Alice Haley Baillio, Brock Davis and Lance Davis all of her late husband, Robert Drake Mitchell Sr. as well as countless others that she touched.
Anita was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1937, attended Madison College (now JMU), received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education/Psychology from Old Dominion University, was awarded her Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1988. But more importantly, she never stopped being both a teacher and a student with an interest that ranged from the history of the Assyrian Empire to the Florentine Renaissance to studies of English royalty.
While she was an active member and Sunday School teacher at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Norfolk, Anita’s faith experience was first rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, with a journey that weaved together elements from both the Baptist and Pentecostal Holiness traditions and with a firm belief that the church should be open and affirming. As much as she liked to teach, she believed that her faith should be practiced with acts of kindness more than with words.
Anita loved to travel: with numerous trips to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Morocco, France, Italy and England. Some of her fondest memories included walking barefoot on the stone floors warmed by the late afternoon sun in the Alhambra outside of Granada, Spain after the crowds had left to getting lost in Luxor, Egypt after leaving her Nile river cruise to sneak in an extra archaeology museum visit. She loved to tell the story of her wonderful adventure with son-in-law David eventually getting from Rome to Perugia and spoke with awe of the evening walking outside her tent in the middle of the Saharan desert in Morocco. And she thrilled to recount the beauty of the doors of the Baptistery in Florence, the excitement of a Bellini at Harry’s Bar in Venice and the bustling markets in Fez as well as Istanbul.
She loved fashion with her first appearance as a model for a trunk show at Talbots in MacArthur Center just a day short of her 82nd birthday. She had an avid interest in gardening and tending to her flowers and various secret gardens. She thoroughly enjoyed rolling out cookies and making pound cakes for others. She cherished her time as Nina serving hot English tea for her grandchildren and for friends alike. And she loved interior decorating with a keen eye towards producing a warm and inviting home from an eclectic mix of items collected from her years of travel. But her greatest love was the interior life.
She will be remembered most by her family and friends for her enormous caring spirit, her kind words and acts, her genuine love for others and her part as a light and a vessel of God’s love for all. Words are inadequate to express the wonderful mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, confidante, ally, friend, teacher, student and lover of justice that Anita was.
A private burial will be held this week. A memorial service and celebration of life will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Norfolk at a later date. H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk is handling her burial and receiving online condolences to the family through www.hdoliver.com
Published in The Virginian-Pilot on May 7, 2020.
She was the daughter of Dorothy Francis Crutsinger Kite and Bernard John Messing; the mother of Gray Newman, Grace Myers and Alexandra Faith Newman; the grandmother of Jason Myers and Rachel Kovacyk; the great-grandmother of Austyn and Landon Kovacyk; the mother-in-law of David Trejo, Jeff Myers and Laura Witham and grandmother-in-law of Bailey Myers and Nicholas Kovacyk; and loved by stepdaughter-in-law Beulah Mitchell, grandchildren Christine Mitchell, Marie Davis and Robert Mitchell III and great-grandchildren Brittany Webb, Alice Haley Baillio, Brock Davis and Lance Davis all of her late husband, Robert Drake Mitchell Sr. as well as countless others that she touched.
Anita was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1937, attended Madison College (now JMU), received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education/Psychology from Old Dominion University, was awarded her Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1988. But more importantly, she never stopped being both a teacher and a student with an interest that ranged from the history of the Assyrian Empire to the Florentine Renaissance to studies of English royalty.
While she was an active member and Sunday School teacher at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Norfolk, Anita’s faith experience was first rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, with a journey that weaved together elements from both the Baptist and Pentecostal Holiness traditions and with a firm belief that the church should be open and affirming. As much as she liked to teach, she believed that her faith should be practiced with acts of kindness more than with words.
Anita loved to travel: with numerous trips to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Morocco, France, Italy and England. Some of her fondest memories included walking barefoot on the stone floors warmed by the late afternoon sun in the Alhambra outside of Granada, Spain after the crowds had left to getting lost in Luxor, Egypt after leaving her Nile river cruise to sneak in an extra archaeology museum visit. She loved to tell the story of her wonderful adventure with son-in-law David eventually getting from Rome to Perugia and spoke with awe of the evening walking outside her tent in the middle of the Saharan desert in Morocco. And she thrilled to recount the beauty of the doors of the Baptistery in Florence, the excitement of a Bellini at Harry’s Bar in Venice and the bustling markets in Fez as well as Istanbul.
She loved fashion with her first appearance as a model for a trunk show at Talbots in MacArthur Center just a day short of her 82nd birthday. She had an avid interest in gardening and tending to her flowers and various secret gardens. She thoroughly enjoyed rolling out cookies and making pound cakes for others. She cherished her time as Nina serving hot English tea for her grandchildren and for friends alike. And she loved interior decorating with a keen eye towards producing a warm and inviting home from an eclectic mix of items collected from her years of travel. But her greatest love was the interior life.
She will be remembered most by her family and friends for her enormous caring spirit, her kind words and acts, her genuine love for others and her part as a light and a vessel of God’s love for all. Words are inadequate to express the wonderful mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, confidante, ally, friend, teacher, student and lover of justice that Anita was.
A private burial will be held this week. A memorial service and celebration of life will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Norfolk at a later date. H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk is handling her burial and receiving online condolences to the family through www.hdoliver.com
Published in The Virginian-Pilot on May 7, 2020.
Anita Newman Mitchell passed away peacefully in her home in Norfolk, Virginia with family on Monday, May 4, 2020.
She was the daughter of Dorothy Francis Crutsinger Kite and Bernard John Messing; the mother of Gray Newman, Grace Myers and Alexandra Faith Newman; the grandmother of Jason Myers and Rachel Kovacyk; the great-grandmother of Austyn and Landon Kovacyk; the mother-in-law of David Trejo, Jeff Myers and Laura Witham and grandmother-in-law of Bailey Myers and Nicholas Kovacyk; and loved by stepdaughter-in-law Beulah Mitchell, grandchildren Christine Mitchell, Marie Davis and Robert Mitchell III and great-grandchildren Brittany Webb, Alice Haley Baillio, Brock Davis and Lance Davis all of her late husband, Robert Drake Mitchell Sr. as well as countless others that she touched.
Anita was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1937, attended Madison College (now JMU), received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education/Psychology from Old Dominion University, was awarded her Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1988. But more importantly, she never stopped being both a teacher and a student with an interest that ranged from the history of the Assyrian Empire to the Florentine Renaissance to studies of English royalty.
While she was an active member and Sunday School teacher at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Norfolk, Anita’s faith experience was first rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, with a journey that weaved together elements from both the Baptist and Pentecostal Holiness traditions and with a firm belief that the church should be open and affirming. As much as she liked to teach, she believed that her faith should be practiced with acts of kindness more than with words.
Anita loved to travel: with numerous trips to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Morocco, France, Italy and England. Some of her fondest memories included walking barefoot on the stone floors warmed by the late afternoon sun in the Alhambra outside of Granada, Spain after the crowds had left to getting lost in Luxor, Egypt after leaving her Nile river cruise to sneak in an extra archaeology museum visit. She loved to tell the story of her wonderful adventure with son-in-law David eventually getting from Rome to Perugia and spoke with awe of the evening walking outside her tent in the middle of the Saharan desert in Morocco. And she thrilled to recount the beauty of the doors of the Baptistery in Florence, the excitement of a Bellini at Harry’s Bar in Venice and the bustling markets in Fez as well as Istanbul.
She loved fashion with her first appearance as a model for a trunk show at Talbots in MacArthur Center just a day short of her 82nd birthday. She had an avid interest in gardening and tending to her flowers and various secret gardens. She thoroughly enjoyed rolling out cookies and making pound cakes for others. She cherished her time as Nina serving hot English tea for her grandchildren and for friends alike. And she loved interior decorating with a keen eye towards producing a warm and inviting home from an eclectic mix of items collected from her years of travel. But her greatest love was the interior life.
She will be remembered most by her family and friends for her enormous caring spirit, her kind words and acts, her genuine love for others and her part as a light and a vessel of God’s love for all. Words are inadequate to express the wonderful mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, confidante, ally, friend, teacher, student and lover of justice that Anita was.
A private burial will be held this week. A memorial service and celebration of life will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Norfolk at a later date. H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk is handling her burial and receiving online condolences to the family through www.hdoliver.com
Published in The Virginian-Pilot on May 7, 2020.
She was the daughter of Dorothy Francis Crutsinger Kite and Bernard John Messing; the mother of Gray Newman, Grace Myers and Alexandra Faith Newman; the grandmother of Jason Myers and Rachel Kovacyk; the great-grandmother of Austyn and Landon Kovacyk; the mother-in-law of David Trejo, Jeff Myers and Laura Witham and grandmother-in-law of Bailey Myers and Nicholas Kovacyk; and loved by stepdaughter-in-law Beulah Mitchell, grandchildren Christine Mitchell, Marie Davis and Robert Mitchell III and great-grandchildren Brittany Webb, Alice Haley Baillio, Brock Davis and Lance Davis all of her late husband, Robert Drake Mitchell Sr. as well as countless others that she touched.
Anita was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1937, attended Madison College (now JMU), received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education/Psychology from Old Dominion University, was awarded her Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1988. But more importantly, she never stopped being both a teacher and a student with an interest that ranged from the history of the Assyrian Empire to the Florentine Renaissance to studies of English royalty.
While she was an active member and Sunday School teacher at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Norfolk, Anita’s faith experience was first rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, with a journey that weaved together elements from both the Baptist and Pentecostal Holiness traditions and with a firm belief that the church should be open and affirming. As much as she liked to teach, she believed that her faith should be practiced with acts of kindness more than with words.
Anita loved to travel: with numerous trips to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Morocco, France, Italy and England. Some of her fondest memories included walking barefoot on the stone floors warmed by the late afternoon sun in the Alhambra outside of Granada, Spain after the crowds had left to getting lost in Luxor, Egypt after leaving her Nile river cruise to sneak in an extra archaeology museum visit. She loved to tell the story of her wonderful adventure with son-in-law David eventually getting from Rome to Perugia and spoke with awe of the evening walking outside her tent in the middle of the Saharan desert in Morocco. And she thrilled to recount the beauty of the doors of the Baptistery in Florence, the excitement of a Bellini at Harry’s Bar in Venice and the bustling markets in Fez as well as Istanbul.
She loved fashion with her first appearance as a model for a trunk show at Talbots in MacArthur Center just a day short of her 82nd birthday. She had an avid interest in gardening and tending to her flowers and various secret gardens. She thoroughly enjoyed rolling out cookies and making pound cakes for others. She cherished her time as Nina serving hot English tea for her grandchildren and for friends alike. And she loved interior decorating with a keen eye towards producing a warm and inviting home from an eclectic mix of items collected from her years of travel. But her greatest love was the interior life.
She will be remembered most by her family and friends for her enormous caring spirit, her kind words and acts, her genuine love for others and her part as a light and a vessel of God’s love for all. Words are inadequate to express the wonderful mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, confidante, ally, friend, teacher, student and lover of justice that Anita was.
A private burial will be held this week. A memorial service and celebration of life will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Norfolk at a later date. H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk is handling her burial and receiving online condolences to the family through www.hdoliver.com
Published in The Virginian-Pilot on May 7, 2020.
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