Mitchell H. Brittain

Mitchell H. Brittain was born in Bristow, Oklahoma November 7, 1934 to Guy Amos and Louise Adeline Brittain and departed from this world peacefully in his bed in Wichita, KS, surrounded by family, on January 30, 2016. Mitchell was not ever shy of helping others. As a child he was gifted with the ability to create and so would make the toys his brothers and sisters played with, including rubber band shooters he carved from wood. As a young man, Mitchell decided to serve his country so joined and served the Navy from 1954-1958. Mitchell took his boot camp training at San Diego and shipped around a bit including service at Moffett Airfield in Sunnyvale, California. From there he decided to put himself in the way of danger to help others and became a fireman civilian in the fire department at Oxnard Airforce Base. He then met Juanita Suffield in Tracy, California and they married in January of 1957. Together with John Beeson and Janice they resided in Camarillo, California. Vivia was then born in October of 1957 and two years later the family became a sextet when Cathy was born. By 1963, Mitchell and his brother Charles took on a business venture. They bought out an old tire shop and opened a large car repair business that gained the attention of the Camarillo Business Review Newspaper stating that Brittain’s Tire Shop and Garage “is one of the best-equipped in Ventura County.” Mitchell told the paper that his biggest job was a Boy Scout bus but that no job was too big or too small. “…As long as it has an engine, a transmission and a wheel in each corner,” he could do the job. Three years later Mitchell moved his family to Wichita, Kansas where he began working with another brother, Dewey. Together they began Brittain Machine Shop out of a garage. In 1968 Mitchell built a home for his family in Bentley, Kansas and then took a mechanic position for Continental Trailways until 1977 when he was injured in a home fire. Just south of Bentley, Kansas, Mitchell was lighting a burner on a stove in a trailer home that recently had been converted from using natural gas to butane. There was not a smell to the gas at the time so Mitchell was not aware of the gas leak. When he attempted to light the burner the gas ignited and the explosion caused third-degree burns over eighty-percent of his body. The trailer was a total loss in the fire but Mitchell was not yet done making an impact on this earth. After a short time of treatment in Halstead Hospital, a helicopter from Ft. Riley air-lifted him to the burn center at The University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City where he recovered and refined his humor. After his recovery, Mitchell went back to work with his brother Dewey, at Brittain Machine but by 1982 he had a hankering to have his own business so started and operated Bentley Corner, a convenience store, gas-station and car repair garage. He kept the business through 1987 and stood out in his community as a leader, friend, role-model and staple in the community. He was elected mayor of Bentley, a title he held for four years, and saturated the community and his family with love, support, hard work and appreciation. Once he made the decision to move on from Bentley Corner he opened a sister business to his brother Dewey’s. Mitchell’s Deburr shop finished out parts that Brittain Machine milled. Brother Charles also spun out a sister company by running semi loads of scrap material from both companies to various recycling centers in the region. Barbara Carter entered in Mitchell’s everyday life in the 90’s and captured the whole of his heart, and because of this, the family knew that she was family too. Also, because of the significant presence of John Wayne in his life, and the significant presence of the old west in Barbara’s, it was clear that they were each a prong on the same horseshoe. She became official family in 1999 when they married. In 2000, Mitchell retired from the working world but never did retire from his role in the family as a man you could always count on, a man that would listen, love, give advice and help all of those he declared as “his own.” Once his great grandkids started arriving he got to work building bassinettes and helped his family on various re-modeling and repair work all the way up to 2015. He enjoyed keeping his sons-in-law and the younger men in the family teeming with side work to do if not to just do all his heavy lifting and…clean up. By 2016, Mitchell had worked his way to the pivotal center of his family. He always found ways to get them all together. He was a gatherer in this way, surrounding himself with the ones he loved. He would stand up for you, stand up to you if you needed it, and no matter what, he would love you all the way…completely, and with all of himself. He strummed the chords of his family that will vibrate into the lives of the next three generations. He is proceeded in death by his parents; wife; three-brothers, Frank, Dewey and Charles; three sisters, Delores, Venice, and Virginia. He is survived by Sister Helen Cullum and Carolyn House; children John Beeson (Norma), Pam Roberts (Jim); Janice Griffith (Scott); Vivia Smith (Robert), Cathy Brittain; fifteen grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. Vigil is at 6 P.M. Tuesday, February 2, 2016 and funeral service at 1 P.M. Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at Resthaven Funeral Home.

Memorials may be made to help for the needs of Mitchell Brittain's Grandson, Cooper Freund at https://www.gofundme.com/mmqhn4