Leonard “Buddy” Mitchell was born October 16, 1941, in Maysville, Kentucky and passed away peacefully, June 13, 2024. He graduated from Maysville High School in 1959 and then achieved a Bachelor’s as well as a Master’s degree at Morehead State University. Upon graduation from college, he joined the United States Navy and completed Officer Candidate School in San Francisco, California. He never had much use for California after that, and for the rest of his life was fond of saying, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”. Upon completion of officer training, he was deployed to Vietnam where he served as “gun boss” on the USS Windham County.
In 1966, he married Nancy “Nikki” Dennison, whom he had met cruising Frisch’s in Aberdeen, Ohio during high school. They had dated casually for a while, and then years later, when Lieutenant Mitchell was ready to settle down, he came looking for his blue-eyed, redheaded West End Maysville girl, swooped her up, and held on tight for 57 years, He was her rock and protector for all of them.
After their marriage, he left the Navy to pursue the life he always wanted; growing tobacco, corn, hay, and beans, raising cows, and cultivating a garden. Professionally, in addition to farming, he taught Industrial Arts at Bethel Tate High School for the duration of his three-decade career. Upon retirement at age 55, he never worked again, as he was too busy making wine, keeping bees, catching crappie, shooting deer, growing tomatoes and rhubarb, cooking and baking hearty casseroles and pastries, planting trees, and being a father, husband, “dog dad”, and grandfather. He was renowned for his “Mitchell’s Country Wine” which was either delicious or terrible depending on how creative he was feeling when he was making it. Fig wine, anyone? Or how about Paw-Paw wine? Only the adventurous partook, but he loved nothing more than sitting on the back porch at the end of the day enjoying a glass of his own wine while bird-watching and enjoying the peace and beauty of his farm. He was an astute observer of the natural world, and in the last few years he got a new lease on life when Amy Cole’s trail cam allowed him to spy to his heart’s content on all the deer, raccoon, opossum, squirrels, rabbits, and bobcats roaming around the hills of Brown County, as he digitally watched her property every day with more diligence than any paid security guard ever would have.
Outstanding personal attributes of Buddy Mitchell were his extremely high intelligence, his strength of conviction, his utter fearlessness, his sense of duty and devotion to family and country, his meticulousness (if you took his pen out of his pocket and DID NOT GIVE IT BACK, all Hell may well break loose), and his pragmatic nature. He was stoic to the end and never complained or explained. He was a warrior, living and dying as independent of body and mind as it is humanly possible to be, even under profound duress.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nikki Mitchell, his daughter Teresa Mitchell Savard (Robert Savard), grandchildren Suzanne (Russell Duterte), Joshua (Emily Kern Savard), and Grace, great-grandchildren Margo, Lily, and Stella as well as special friends Colin and Renee Driscoll and John King, by whom he will be forever missed. He was preceded in death by his parents Ruth Evelyn “Little Ebby” Wiggins and John William “Bill” Mitchell, daughter Carolee Mitchell, brother Stanley “Sonny” Mitchell and best friend Ron Mathis.
Services will be private. He will be laid to rest in the Maysville-Mason County Cemetery.
Brell & Son Funeral Home is serving the family.
Condolences at www.brellandson.com.
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