Lona Mitchell

Lona Mitchell, 99 of rural Wisconsin Dells, died Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 at St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo.

Funeral services will be Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m. at the Davis Corners United Methodist Church on County Highway I in rural Wisconsin Dells with the Rev. Steven Miller officiating. Burial will be at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Wisconsin Dells. Visitation will be at Davis Corners United Methodist Church on Saturday from 12:30 p.m. until the time of service at 2 p.m.

Lona was born Oct. 19, 1910 in Oxford, the daughter of Adam and Marie Schuelke Smith. In September 1932, she married Stewart Mitchell in Oxford. For many years she worked as a farm wife on the family farm where they have lived since 1941, pitching in with her share of chores and later she worked for 13 years at the Riverview Curio Shops. Lona was very active in the church ladies aid group and made cookie boxes well into her 90s. She enjoyed baby sitting her grandchildren, and she loved playing cards, especially euchre and continental rummy, that she played at her last birthday.

Lona is survived by her beloved husband of 77 years, Stewart; daughters, Lucille (Kenneth) Foster of Wisconsin Dells and Lila Patsy (James) Elliott of Ft. Myers, Fla.; grandchildren, Vicki Brown, Lori Sies, Kimberly Fiore, Michelle Metcalfe and Melanie Foster and four great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Arnold, Harold, Howard and Earl; and sisters, Lorella Robinson, Marguerite Zinke, Mildred Jungenberg and Helen Smith.

The Picha Funeral Home and Crematory of Wisconsin Dells, assisted the family with arrangements. For online condolences, go to www.pichafuneralhome.com.