Delta Soror, longtime educator Nancy T. Mitchell dies at 89

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Longtime Gary teacher Nancy T. Mitchell died Feb. 11. She was 89.

Mitchell taught for 24 years at Roosevelt High School and she was the first black school trustee at Indiana State University.

Mitchell is survived by her daughter, Nanette Sami, and her husband, Taoufik Sami, who teaches French at West Side High School. She was preceded in death by her husband, Alan Mitchell, and her son, Alan Andre Mitchell.

Her family will host a celebration of Mitchell’s life at 11 a.m. Saturday at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 719 W. 25th Ave.

Sami said there will be no burial service.

Mitchell was born in Lexington, Ky., and she graduated at 16 from Dunbar High School in Lexington. She attended Wilberforce University in Ohio and Tennessee State University.

Sami said her mother was passionate about teaching English literature, which she did for 45 years in Kentucky and Gary. She taught at Roosevelt High School from 1960 to 1984.

“She had a love of the English language and a love of literature,” Sami said. “A lot of students said should have taught at university.”

In 1968, Mitchell was appointed to the board of trustees at Indiana State University and served for 12 years.

Mitchell was a Sagamore of the Wabash, and a member of Delta Sigma Theta. She belonged to the Lake County Retired Teachers, the Republican Party, and AARP.

Mitchell helped with the war effort during World War II. In the 1940s, Sami said her mother traveled by train from Washington, D.C., to Kentucky, and many black citizens would have to move to the Jim Crow car as it headed into Maryland.

“Not often but just enough to tweak them, she would pretend to be asleep,” Sami said. “In her own quiet way she was a little mover and shaker.”

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