Mildred Fairchild Schell died peacefully in her home on Wednesday, October 8, 2008. She was born on June 6, 1915, in Huggins, Missouri, and was preceded in death by her husband Dr. Robert Eugene Schell, her parents Timothy Marsh Fairchild and Lena Koser Fairchild, her sisters Leona Fairchild Osterday, Lucy Fairchild Green, Irene Fairchild Breece, Ellen Fairchild Filter, and her brothers Timothy Marsh Fairchild II, and Charles Alexander Fairchild.
She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in dietetics and chemistry. She worked in Youngstown, Ohio as a hospital dietician for 5 years before serving in the US Army from 1943 to 1944 as a medical dietician and Second Lieutenant. She married Robert E. Schell, her husband of sixty three years, in May of 1943 while stationed at Fort Fitzsimmons, Colorado. After discharge from the army, she reared four children and served as a volunteer for the schools, church and girl scouts. As chair of the camp committee she was instrumental in the creation of Pisgah Girl Scout Camp. She resumed work as a dietician in 1959 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Asheville, NC retiring in 1979. She was a member of Black Mountain State Street Methodist Church for ten years and the Groce United Methodist Church for the past fifty years. She was a creative homemaker and accomplished seamstress. She loved the Great Smoky Mountains and the cornfields of Iowa and the view from her back porch of Beaver Lake. She enjoyed a lifetime friendship with the ladies of the BBC (Bluebird club from high school), reading, canasta, crossword puzzles, traveling, dancing, camping, and the Tarheels. She greeted all with a smile that brought warmth and happiness and ended each Johnny Appleseed grace giving thanks for the family.
Survivors include children, Pamela Schell of Portland, ORE, Joan Grimes and husband Jan of Asheville, Robert Schell, Jr. and wife Julie, of Burke, VA and Peggy Ottalini and husband David, Silver Spring, MD; grandchildren Peter Grimes and wife Lyz of Cincinnati, OH, Hannah Fairchild Grimes of Baltimore, MD, and Katherine Grimes Crum and husband Andrew of Chapel Hill, NC, Daniel Ottalini and Russell Ottalini both of Silver Spring, MD and Emily Schell of Burke, VA; sisters-in-law Myrtle Foster Fairchild of Arden Hills MN, Mary Schell Wright of Newton Square PA, and Evelyn Huston Schell of Owensboro, KY; and a loving and devoted second family of caregivers, Lisa House, Renita Earls, Hyacinth Garrett, Lexie Wilkins, Cindy Cooper, Terry Franklin, Tonya Lytle, George Ray, and Amanda Miller.
Friends are invited to a reception from 12:30 till 2:00 PM at Groce United Methodist Church fellowship hall on Monday, October 13, 2008 followed by the funeral service in the sanctuary at 2:00 PM with Rev. Gerald Davis officiating.
Interment will be held at the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery, Black Mountain, NC at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, October 14, 2008.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Pisgah Girl Scout Council, 64 King St., Asheville, NC 28804, or Groce United Methodist Church.
