Robert Mitchell

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Robert L. "Bob" Mitchell Sr., 78, of Sikeston died Friday, Jan. 28, 2005, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

He was born Dec. 8, 1926, in Oklahoma City, Okla., son of Clay A. and Lucille Proffit Mitchell. He and Betty Jo Heath were married June 23, 1945, in Gulfport, Miss.

Mitchell was a 1944 graduate of Sikeston High School and attended the University of Missouri-Columbia and Southeast Missouri State University, where he played on the 1946 championship football team. He served in the U.S. Air Force and returned to Sikeston where he founded Mitchell Insurance. He was a past member of the Traveler's Insurance Advisory Council, was named Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year in 1959, was inducted into the Sikeston Public Schools Hall of Fame in 1996 and was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. Mitchell served as president of several area organizations including the Sikeston Jaycees, Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce, Sikeston Board of Education, Sikeston Lions Club, SACC Industrial Development and was also a member of the Missouri Delta Medical Center Board of Directors. He helped organize the Sikeston Little League Baseball program and was one of the founders of KMPL radio station. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Sikeston where he served as a member of the church council, chairman of the staff parish and finance committees, Sunday school teacher and secretary of the building committee for the present church. Mitchell was also a 50-year member of the Masonic Lodge 310 AF and AM.

Survivors include his wife; a son, Robert L. "Rob" Mitchell of Sikeston; a daughter, Sally M. Lape of Sikeston; a brother, John P. "Jack" Mitchell of Sikeston; three grandchildren; two great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by two brothers and a sister.

Friends may call from noon to 2 p.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church.

Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Monday at the church, with the Revs. Bill Koch Jonathan Cooney and Harold Norton officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of the Nunnelee Funeral Chapel.