Fern Ridge Review                                    
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
May 7, 2015
By Pat Edwards

Thank you to the members of the Creswell Library Foundation for inviting Jo-Brew and I to give a talk on Saturday, May 2. There was a good attendance and we enjoyed meeting many of the good people of Creswell.

We have two more talks scheduled this week (at the time of this writing)… one on Saturday, May 9 in Oregon City and one in Milwaukie, Oregon on May 12. I’ll be driving us to both and after that, we will take a break until our next one scheduled in June. These talks are fun to do, but they do take their toll on the energy of “us seniors.” During our break, I’m looking forward to doing some more yard work, watch my birds, spend some time doing “fun stuff” with Jim and the family and watch our new little great-granddaughter grow.

Happy 60th Anniversary to lifelong Lorane resident Bill Mitchell and his almost-lifelong-resident-of-Lorane wife, Charlotte! They celebrated their big event at the Lorane Senior Lunch at the Rebekah Hall a couple of weeks ago with a huge cake and lots of hugs and good wishes. Gena Wenger-Yamamoto expressed the thoughts we all have about this much-loved couple: “ They are two of the sweetest, most caring and giving people I know!”

Bill is one of the brothers of Estelle Mitchell Counts. Their father was Bill Mitchell, Sr. who, with their mother Hattie, opened the Mitchell Store in Lorane in 1934. After Bill, Sr. tragically died in 1969, following a store robbery and his overnight kidnapping, Stell ran the store until Jim and I bought it in 1977 and renamed it the Lorane Family Store. At the time that we bought it, Charlotte Mitchell was working as Stell’s “co-pilot” at the store. The Mitchells are a family that holds a very special place in the hearts of Jim and me.

Happy 60th, Bill and Charlotte!!

Bill and Charlotte Mitchell (an excerpt from a story for The Lorane Historian by Pat Edwards, May 22, 1995)

“Note to the youth of the community (of Lorane)… ‘Love isn’t always fun and games, but it is worth keeping. It grows as you grow, and it gets better and better with age. Take all of the budget classes you can get in school – it’s the most important class you can take. And, most importantly, (for you future husbands) NEVER tell your wife that ‘Mother can make it better.’ It took Bill Mitchell 12 years to get another apple pie, despite backpedaling and repeatedly telling Charlotte that ‘The first one really wasn’t bad!’

“This is the wise advice offered by Bill and Charlotte Mitchell after almost 40 years of marriage.

“Bill and Charlotte Fisher met in 1954 at Camp Hanford, Washington while he was serving with the U.S. Army. She was working at the time for the Army as a clerk/typist. They were married on April 30, 1955, in a military ceremony in the chapel at Camp Hanford by an Army chaplain. Bill wore a light brown suit and Charlotte wore a ’50’s style white ankle length dress with at least 50 white heart-shaped buttons down the front. She carried her favorite yellow roses. They spent their honeymoon on the Oregon coast and made a homeward loop through Lorane to meet the Mitchell family…

“…The secret to their long and successful marriage isn’t necessarily simple. ‘We’ve been honest with each other and everyone we deal with. Marriage is a job – a full time job and sometimes negotiations break down. But, as long as you communicate with each other, you can work it out.’ And, as that apple pie story proves, one of the most important ingredients in the Mitchell’s marriage is ‘humor… the ability to laugh at our mistakes and learn from them.’

“Bill has, indeed, learned big-time! ‘Well, mom’s apple pie was awfully good, but Charlotte did learn how to make a good one, too!’”

 (I will soon be posting the Mitchell’s full story in the May 22, 1995 issue of The Lorane Historian on this site.)