Margaret Mitchell; 61-Year Ventura Resident

Margaret Mitchell, a 61-year Ventura resident, died Tuesday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 82.

She was born April 10, 1914, in Raton, N. M.

Mitchell lived in several western states and Canada before moving to Los Angeles, where she graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1931.

She attended UCLA and Woodbury College, and married Thomas Mitchell on May 15, 1936, in Fullerton.

“My father lived two weeks to the day past their 60th wedding anniversary,” said their daughter, Marsha Batelaan of Ventura.

“He wanted to have one more I guess.”

Margaret Mitchell stayed home to raise the couple’s two children before returning to the work force in 1959, becoming a secretary at radio station KVEN until her retirement in 1968.

She was an active member of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Ventura and served as past president of the church’s women’s group.

“She liked to play the organ,” Batelaan said. “She loved to sit and do any kind of needlework, knitting or sewing.”

Mitchell donated many of her artworks to charitable groups.

In addition to Batelaan, she is survived by her daughter Rochelle Mitchell of Encino; two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 2 to 7 tonight, with vigil services following at Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home, Ventura.

A Eucharistic liturgy is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of the Assumption Church. Burial will follow at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard.

Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Assn.