Remembering Dennis Mitchell
My husband Dennis Mitchell died on 7 February 2026.
He was born in Wabasha Minnesota on 24 December 1946, the last of 6 children and brought up essentially by a single mother, his father having deserted the family when Denny was 2 years old. She had to work very hard just to keep food on the table. Denny went to work by the age of 10 delivering newspapers, on skis in the winter and then in the local marina cleaning boats and looking after the engines. He also drove tractors on his uncle’s farm every summer from the age of 12, starting his second great love affair.
His first was with the Great River itself, the Mississippi. The house he was born in was a stone’s throw from it and he learnt to swim there, canoe upon it and ran his own leaky little boat on it every summer, hunting and fishing. In the winter there was ice fishing. His brother in law Jerry, 10 years older than him, taught him hunting and fishing skills. Jerry was a member of the Sioux nation, a local art teacher and a great role model.
Dennis finished school in 1964 and like many of the boys eventually enlisted into the Armed Forces. This was at the height of the Vietnam Conflict. He followed in a tradition of his family of giving a number of years to Armed service and in common with them all, he served as a volunteer committed to the principles expressed in the Pledge of Allegiance. He was not a supporter in any way of the more recent decisions made by US government and was distressed by them.
He became a trained medic specialising in the psychiatric care of returning veterans and their families. He met me when he was at USAF Lakenheath in Suffolk and I was a social work student. We married after 90 days of knowing each other.
We decided to return to UK in 1978. Dennis became a full time father for a time as he had to wait to gain his work permit. He found it difficult at first to be accepted because he was a full time Dad and an American. He started to make his way through gardening and chimney sweeping and later he saved enough to set up Amble Taxis in 1984.
The taxi business grew and he eventually had a regular user group who still remember him fondly and he began to be successful at bidding for school and business contracts. He retired in 2008 as his hearing was deteriorating.
Since then he became involved with his beloved vintage tractor and as a volunteer at Aln Valley Railway.
My husband was my place of peace and comfort. He was the place I came home to every night regardless of where we were. We loved having adventures and driving the back roads of USA and across our own hills here in Northumberland.
Dennis’s funeral service showed how many friends this quiet gentle man had who lived so far from his homeland but tried so hard to make people feel welcome.
Sarah Mitchell
