Mittie Atkins Sutherlin

Mittie Atkins Sutherlin, 92, died August 9, 2016. Born in Urbana, Arkansas, on October 12, 1923, to Lillian and Henry Atkins, Mittie was the youngest of six children. She grew up in a small frame house in the country, the landscape dotted with pulp pine and oil wells. It was a hardscrabble life. Her father died when she was three. She found her escape at the movies with her best friend Katherine, enthralled by the crepe-backed satin world of Ginger Rogers, her favorite star.

Mittie graduated high school as valedictorian, then moved to El Dorado to study cosmetology. She worked as a beauty operator, as they were known then, for Lillie Faye Oldham, who became a close friend and mentor. For years afterward, it was rare to pass a woman on the street without hearing Mittie whisper, “I used to do her hair.”

On February 4, 1947, Mittie married the charming, witty and eternally restless Ennis Sutherlin, a World War II veteran. After traipsing around the Ark-La-Tex where Ennis worked at various jobs, including Coke delivery driver and airplane factory worker, the couple settled back in El Dorado with their three children and became entrepreneurs. They opened the Razorback Market on East Hillsboro — with no business experience and a couple hundred borrowed dollars. A cigar box served as the cash register. They worked 13-hour days, Mittie often checking out groceries with a toddler slung on her hip like a sack of flour while the other kids built doll houses in the aisles with cans of Vienna sausages and Beanie Weenies. The small mom-and-pop store afforded annual family vacations, college educations for their children, and a home in the country where over the years Ennis created a menagerie of sorts: carrier pigeons, Chester white hogs, a small herd of Charolais cattle, French lop rabbits, and the occasional pygmy fainting goat.

Mittie was devoted to her family and the Arkansas Razorbacks, in that order. She was a hard worker. A caring friend. A loving daughter. She maintained a stable, dependable presence in a long life filled with challenges. Her granddaughter Lindsey once said, as a compliment, that her grandmother was made of iron. Her grandmother replied, “More like barbed wire.” She was tenacious. When Ennis once suggested selling the store, she put her foot down with the defiance of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind,” silhouetted with that handful of turnips. Mittie kept working well into her seventies, until 1994, when the store closed its doors after 38 years.

Mittie was a proud Democrat, a Baptist and a diehard Hog fan. For decades she bought season football tickets and rarely missed a game. One of her favorite memories was a Fayetteville game she attended with her 10-year old grandson in tow (though truth be told, he was there for the cotton candy and giant foam finger).

Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband of 64 years, and her five siblings: Mattie Bledsoe, Lola Bledsoe, Nora Tomlinson, Lawrence Frisby, and Lorene Shirey. She is survived by her children Diann (Craig Smith), Little Rock; Donna, Atlanta; and Mark, El Dorado, who lovingly cared for his mother for the past five years, allowing her to live out her life in her home as she wanted. Memaw’s world-class mac and cheese will be greatly missed by her grandchildren: Quentin Smith (Little Rock), Lindsey Smith (Durham, North Carolina), Blair Smith (Prague, Czech Republic), Morgan Pelligrino (Atlanta), Jessica Duffy (Orlando), Matthew Sutherlin (Hot Springs) and Brooke Martin (Nacogdoches, TX). She had one great grandchild, Aiden Sutherlin. She will also be missed by a special nephew, Leon Bledsoe (Doerun, GA).

Visitation will be held Monday, August 15, from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm at Young’s Funeral Home, followed by a graveside service at Arlington Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1012 Autumn Rd #1, Little Rock, AR 72211 (www.namiarkansas.org).