Emma Marie Mitchell

Emma Marie Cooper Mitchell was born to Henry and Viola Cooper on June 7, 1927, in a basement in Beaver County, Oklahoma.  She passed away in Perryton, Texas on April 18, 2017, at the age of 89 years, 10 months, and 11 days.

She is survived by three sons, David and wife Carol of Canyon, Texas, Doug and wife Elaine of Balko, and Dale and wife Maria of Balko, along with ten grandchildren, fourteen great grandchildren, one great great grandchild, and a host of nephews, nieces, and friends.

Emma was preceded in death by her husband Ervin, who passed away last August, just a few weeks prior to their 69^th anniversary. She was also preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Viola Cooper, and her sisters, Ella Lavena Wallis, and Ruby Ella Noble.

She started to school at the Olive Schoolhouse, about a mile from where she lived on the farm most of her life.  Her father made a buggy for the 3 girls, so someone had to care for the horse when they got to school.  Emma graduated from Balko High School in 1945.  She and Ervin Mitchell, one of her classmates, were married in 1947, after he got out of the Army Air Corps.  They lived at the Harold Hires place in Balko when they were first married, where God blessed them with three sons in 28 months.  They moved to their present home in 1951, when their youngest son, Dale, was a baby.

Emma was the hardworking, thrifty wife of a successful farmer. They operated a dairy for 40 years.  In addition to cooking the meals and making clothes for her three sons, Emma fed the bottle calves and drove the silage truck and the grain cart.  Ervin gave her the CB handle “Ladybug”.  She sometimes responded by calling him “Green Bug”.

Emma loved the Lord Jesus Christ.  She faithfully attended the Balko Apostolic Faith Church from the time it was built in 1946 until her health no longer allowed her to go.  She loved to read God’s Word and was a faithful prayer warrior. 

Emma Mitchell will be sorely missed, and never forgotten.  The “shoes” she leaves behind are not only those of a loving mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, but of a caring, praying, Christian woman.  Those “shoes” are not big and were not expensive, but they are priceless, and will be hard to fill.  Thank God for the life of Emma Mitchell.