At the age of 10, her family moved to Ava Barbara Jean Davis Mitchell was born on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 1931, in Valley, Neb. She was the youngest of five children born to Neal and Bertha Davis. At the age of 10, her family moved to Ava, where she attended school and graduated from high school.
She met her husband, Clint Mitchell, while he was holding a revival at Gentry Church. They were married on May 22, 1948, at the Ava Highway Church of the Nazarene.
Clint and Barbara started their ministry as “Youth Evangelists of the Ozarks” and their first pastorate began in Hiwasse, Ark.
To this union four children were born: Diana, Linda, Joyce and Curtis.
Barbara was a helpmate to her husband and assisted in his ministry. Their ministry spanned 58 plus years through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Missouri. They moved to the Tulsa area in 1981 and pastored around the Northeast Oklahoma District until Clint’s retirement in 1993. Barbara worked for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Oklahoma in Tulsa as an underwriting secretary in New Business from 1983 until her retirement in 1999.
Barbara passed away on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4, 2006, at 9:29 p.m. at St. Francis Hospital, Tulsa, Okla.
She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Clint Mitchell; two sisters, Wilma Flynn and Gerry Hailey, both of Ava; her four children, Diana Mitchell, of McCloud, Okla., Linda Sonnenberg and her husband Randy, of Sapulpa, Okla., Joyce Hobbs and her husband Roy, of Glenpool, Okla., and Curtis Mitchell, of Sapulpa, Okla.; seven grandchildren, Chonda Berrier, of Melbourne, Fla., Shannon Crutcher and her husband, Kendall, of Suffolk, Va., Robbie Sonnenberg, of Mannford, Okla., Brina Schoonover and her husband Clayton, of Tulsa, Garrett and Conner Hobbs, of Glenpool, Okla., and Neal Mitchell of Beggs, Okla.; eight great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews, along with many friends.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Neal and Bertha Davis, two brothers, Lloyd and Jesse Davis, and one nephew, David Hailey.
Funeral services were held Thursday, Sept. 7, at 2 p.m., at Central Church of the Nazarene, Tulsa, Okla.
