Doris Jean Mitchell
Doris Jean Mitchell, a long-time resident of Oak Lawn, died Aug. 4 several hours after she suffered a hemorrhagic stroke.
Born April 23, 1939 in San Antonio, Doris lived briefly in Chicago with her parents — Dr. Holland Mitchell of Weatherford and Hazel Jones Mitchell of Floydada, Texas — before moving to Waco where she attended Waco High School. She graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock in 1960, and earned her masters in Library Science at the Texas Women’s University in Denton.
Doris began her working life as a librarian at Jesuit High School in Dallas, but it was at the newly-opened Richardson Public Library in 1970 that she spent more than four-and-a-half decades as a reference librarian, ending her long career this past April at the age of 77.
Respected widely for her easy laugh, inquisitiveness and vast store of knowledge, and especially for her willingness to help her patrons and fellow workers, Doris will be remembered by many for her attachment to her cats, her Halloween costumes and her love of gentle people of all shades and hues of the rainbow.
Doris was preceded in death by her parents and by her brother, William Nelson Mitchell, of Reno, Nev. She is survived by her cousins, Lovene Moore and Sharon Decker Henson, both of Waco, and Charlotte Decker Henson, of Auburn, Ala.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, Aug. 14, from 3-6 p.m., at Seven for Parties, 150 Turtle Creek Blvd, Ste. 107, in the Design District near downtown Dallas.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 12, 2016.