Supercentenarian Profile

Magnolia Mitchell

Born:

1903-01-21

Yalobusha County, Mississippi

United States

Died:

2015-10-30

Grenada, Mississippi

United States

Magnolia Mitchell (née Jackson) was an American supercentenarian.

BIOGRAPHY

Magnolia Mitchell was born in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, on 21 January 1903. She was born to Scott and Ada Jackson as the eldest of six children. She attended school in the Springhill community east of Riverdale and completed an eighth-grade education. She began cooking at the age of five and fondly recalled the wooden block her father made to serve as a step, allowing her to reach the stovetop.

When she was 13, her father passed away, leaving her and her older brother to help their mother raise the younger children. At 15, she began doing domestic work in the Hardy community, earning one dollar a day to help support her family.

In 1925, she married Vellie Mitchell and lived in Yalobusha County, where she continued domestic work and sharecropping before securing employment at Camp McCain in Grenada, Mississippi. There, she worked in the laundry room during World War I. She had no biological children but raised four, including her younger sister’s daughter, Blanchie Ross. She was also known to have worked for other families and helped raise their children as well.

At the age of 28, she joined Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church in the Leverette community, where she served faithfully until moving to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. She then united with Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Paynes, remaining an active and devoted member well into her centenarian years.

Magnolia Mitchell passed away in Grenada, Mississippi, on 30 October 2015, at the age of 112 years, 282 days.