1. | Mitchell Phillips was born 14 Jan 1924, Haywood County, North Carolina; died 22 Mar 1977, Cosby, Cocke County, Tennessee. Notes:
Attended Pittman Center School and transferred to Cosby High when his family lost their second land to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mitchell played a mean game of basketball, similar to those played by his youngest son Max.
Mitchell served as a Gunners Mate 3rd Class and was Captain of his gun mound. He was joined in San Francisco, California during World War II, by his wife, Helen. In 1947 they moved back to Cosby, Tennessee where they built a house next door to his parents.
Jobs were scarce and times were hard. He chose to go North to find work rather than make moonshine, another alternative during those lean days. He worked in Willmington, Delaware and for Ford Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio. He lost his left hand in a construction accident in 1966. He was a South Paw who had to
learn to use his right hand. After the accident he went to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. As time passed he went to work for Firestone Corporation in Newport, Tennessee as a security guard. He went into the factory working his way up until 1977 at the time of his death, he was a shift foreman for Firestone.
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Reference:
"Sevier County, Tennessee and Its Heritage", 1994, p 305, 309.
Mitchell married Helen Lucille Parton 9 Sep 1944, Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee. Helen (daughter of Albert Michael "Mike" Parton and Lina Isabell "Lonnie" McCarter) was born 15 Oct 1925, Sevier County, Tennessee. [Group Sheet]
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