Diane Mitchell set an example for all of us in community involvement

It is hard to find adequate words to express the loss to family, friends and the City of Corbin with the passing of Diane Mitchell last week. She was a rare individual that took on tasks in our community that very few are available or willing to do. She will be greatly missed.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

She was active in several organizations including the Ossoli Club, the Carnegie Center, the Corbin Public Library Board, and Friends of the Library. She served in the food pantry of the Corbin Presbyterian Church for many years.

Diane and I had a lot in common in that she taught journalism, along with French at Corbin High School. She created “The Paw’s Print” student newspaper and the “Pegasus” student literary magazine and coached her students in publication of the national “Foxfire” series.

However, it was her interest in the history of Corbin that recently brought us together. Diane worked in developing a Corbin history room at the library. She held “memory meetings” at the library for the community to share experiences.

She and her brother Robert had pictures, maps and written history that I had never seen before. In our first group session Paul Jones, who at 101 years of age, told about people, buildings and events that few knew about.

The session went so well that Diane scheduled more meetings that allowed each individual to talk about how things were when they were growing up. I enjoyed these meetings and wrote about them several times in this space.

She and the “Friends of the Library” of which she was a member, were in the process of having old photos and records digitized so they could be accessed electronically.

Another personal experience that Diane involved me in was the 75th anniversary of the May Day Festival at the Corbin Arena. She asked me to be the MC for the event.

Prior to the festival she and Robert made a video of our experiences which several of us participated in as youngsters when we were in the festival.

I believe the festival had been started about three years before I entered the first grade. My mother made my outfit. She saved part of it and it hangs in my closet now as a memory of that event.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to share these experiences with Diane. As Trevor Sherman wrote in a story in this newspaper about her, “She worked hard to ensure that future generations will not forget important chapters in the storied history of this community.”

For years Diane and others  have been working to restore the old Carnegie Library, located on Roy Kidd Avenue.  It is one of the few historical building left in the City of Corbin. The family has requested that donations in memory of Diane be made to the Carnegie Center of Corbin. P.O. Box 114, Corbin, Ky. 40702.

People like Diane and Ann Hoskins, who also was involved with the library and Fine Arts before her death, will be hard to replace.

When you think of volunteers like the late Betty Hamilton and Betty Comer, who has retired from the leadership of the Fine Arts Association of Southeastern Kentucky, it makes you wonder if there will be people like them to step up and carry on the outstanding programs that are dependent on community involvement.

There are many other volunteer programs in the community, like the Back Pack program that was started by Doris Moore and she is still involved with it, that depend on your support.

To Diane and the many others who have made this community a better place to live, we owe them a debt of gratitude. Again to Diane, thanks for all you did.