Mona Mitchell

Nora Mona Mitchell entered into rest on Feb. 27, 2008, at her home on the Dufort Road, Sagle, Idaho. She was 91. Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 PM, Tuesday, March 4th in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel. Pastor Matt Lombard, Seventh Day Adventist Church, will officiate. Interment will be in the Westmond Cemetery. Friends may call at Coffelt Funeral Service on Monday, March 3rd, from 1:00 PM until 6:00 PM. Mona was born on March 12, 1916, to Fred and Zerilda (Stone) Dunn at Formosa, Kansas. Her parents left the dust bowl in 1933 for Arlee, Montana, where she soon met her future husband, Jasper L. Mitchell. Mona graduated from Arlee High School in 1934 and married Jasper in Missoula, Montana, on December 25, 1935. In the interim, she worked for the Jesuit fathers at the St. Ignatius Mission at nearby St. Ignatius, Montana. Jasper and Mona lived on a farm at Arlee until May of 1944, at which time they moved their family of three young daughters and Jasper’s small sawmill to the Dufort farm. The Dunns moved to an adjoining farm, and Fred and Jasper set up and operated the mill on Jasper’s property. Mona has cooked for her haying and threshing crews in Montana; in Idaho she fed haying and sawmill crews. She and Jasper also had four more children, a son and three daughters. Mona was active for years in women’s Extension work, led a 4-H club, and, with her mother, helped organize the hot lunch program at the Westmond School. She was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. At age 58, Mona went to work for the Sandpoint Manor Nursing Home, becoming a Certified Nurse’s Aid. She retired in 2002 at age 82. She loved small children, sewing, flowers and vegetable gardening, and in her last years, kept busy making quilts for the members of her large family. Her heart was always in the country, and all who loved her will remember her as forever busy; the word “rest” was not in her vocabulary. Mona was preceded in death by her parents; a beloved father-in-law, Jasper A. Mitchell, whom she cared for in his last days; a sister and niece, Jessie and Joyce Sanders; her husband, Jasper, in September 1976; and two grandsons, Brandon May and Rob Wigen. She is survived by her children: Marylyn Cork, Priest River; Rachel Montgomery, Sagle, Janice May, Whitepine, Tenn.; Roy Mitchell, Sagle; Jessie Mitchell, Chattaroy, Wash.; Priscilla Sink, Colbert, Wash.; and Leisa Baldwin, Sagle. Thirty-two grandchildren, 73 great-grandchildren, and 19 great great-grandchildren called her grandma. Hers was a long life of hard work and service to many. She will be sorely missed by all.