Irene was born at home in Dracut, MA on March 1, 1923 to Roland M. and Louisa Pierce Hill. She grew up in Dracut enjoying her friends swimming in the nearby mill pond and sledding down nearby hills in the winter. She sang in the choir at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Lowell, MA. She also played piano and organ.
While in high school she got a $200 award for having the second highest intelligence score in the school. In her senior year she was personal secretary to the school principal. She graduated in 1940.
In 1944 she married William Ralph Mitchell. They had 3 sons, Roger Warren Mitchell, 1948, James Edward Mitchell, 1950, and Arthur Roland Mitchell, 1951.
They both were interested in rock collecting and camping. On many summer Saturdays the family went out for a picnic and rock hunting expedition to some old abandoned mine. Irene’s interest in rocks led her to getting an associate’s degree in gemology. Using her degree she went to work for a diamond importer in Boston evaluating diamonds. Every day she would take the train to and from Boston.
Irene always had an interest in spiritual things looking for the thing that would satisfy her spiritual interest. In the 1960s she got interested in a reverend’s teachings at the Church of the Good Shepard in Reading, MA. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy her spiritual interests. While going to a chiropractor in Derry, NH she became interested in the Emissaries of Devine Light. That interest lead her and family to Colorado to attend the servers training course of the Emissaries of Devine Light at Sunrise Ranch west of Loveland, CO. While at the ranch Irene decided the marriage to Ralph was failing and left the ranch to go back to Massachusetts with Raoul Vallee who she later married.
In the early 1970s she and her new husband Raoul (Rudy) Vallee set up a ontological center for the Emissaries of Devine Light in Ft. Collins. Rudy set up a furniture restoration shop in Ft. Collins while Irene did taxes for H&R Block. She later worked for A&Q tax service.
Even the Emissaries weren’t enough to satisfy her spiritual interests. She and Rudy became interested in an evangelical church in Loveland where you weren’t a true evangelical unless you spoke in tongues, basically Gibberish. She finally realized that Jesus was right all along, the kingdom of heaven is within you.
After Rudy passed away on February 3, 1995, Irene took in a previously homeless man, Gary Karinen, and formed a friendship that lasted to her death. Gary moved to Hawaii but called Irene every day to talk. After Gary moved away Irene lived alone in her apartment taking care of household chores and reading on spiritual items until the day she passed. Even through her advanced age she kept most of her intelligence that she won an award for in 1940.
Irene leaves behind her three sons, Roger, James, and Arthur Mitchell, four grandchildren, Jesse, Samuel, Morgan Mitchell and Clarice Stone. She also leaves behind 3 great grandchildren, Graham and Dawson Stone, and Sophia Mitchell.
Irene was always a friendly person and made friends easily. She would start up a conversation with complete strangers. Her open and friendly spirit will be sorely missed by all those who knew her.
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