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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MITCHELL, MAISY (FARRAH) (1899-1986)

MITCHELL, MAISY (FARRAH), community organization leader; b. Etang-du-Nord, Magdalen Islands, Que., 20 Nov 1899, d/o George Farrah and Najeebee Musalem; m. 1921, Leo A. Mitchell; d. Newcastle, 29 Jul 1986.

In 1910 Maisy Mitchell's parents, who had a general store on the Magdalen Islands, enrolled her in St Mary's Academy in Newcastle, where her uncle Abraham D. Farrah and other relatives lived. After she graduated in 1915 she went back to the Magdalens for a while, but she subsequently returned to Newcastle to marry and make her permanent home. From 1921 until his death in 1970 her husband, Leo A. Mitchell, was the proprietor of Mitchell's Meat Market.

Mitchell volunteered her time to the Girl Guides, the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the Arthritis Society. She stated in 1973 that she had been a member of the Catholic Women's League for more than fifty years and had served for a time as president of the local chapter. In 1975 she was elected president of the Senior Citizens' Friendship Club.

Mitchell learned folksongs on the Magdalen Islands as a child and sang in French in the annual Miramichi folksong festivals in the 1960s. She also took an interest in the staging of the festival, and when Louise Manny, its founder and director, decided to step aside in 1968, she took over from her. Ten years later, although approaching her seventy-ninth birthday, she was still the principal organizer of this summer event.

In recognition of the importance of Mitchell's contribution to the folksong festival and the voluntary sector in general, she was presented with a Distinguished Citizen's Award in 1985. She was survived in 1986 by two daughters and four sons.

Sources

[b] Leader 19 Dec 1973 [m] Leader 29 Jul 1921 [d] News 6 Aug 1986 / Leader 28 Aug 1969, 12 Feb 1970, 10 Jul 1974, 29 Jan 1975, 21 Jun 1978; News 30 Jan 1980; tombstone (parents)


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