Opal Dane Scruggs was born on September 12, 1907, the second daughter of John Thomas Scruggs and Eliza Kate Johnston. She passed from this life on August 25, 2002, in Austin, Texas. When she was just one year old, her family moved from Denison to the new state of Oklahoma. The moved to a farm just south of what is now Madill, Oklahoma. In 1917, the family moved to Duncan, Oklahoma, where she met James William Mitchell. They were married December 24, 1925. This union was blessed with three children: James William, Jr., in 1926, Mary Dane, in 1932, and Ronald Dean, in 1947.

Opal placed membership with the Church of Christ that met at Fourteenth and Main in Duncan, and later with the congregation in Comanche, OK, where she attended regularly and was a Sunday school teacher for more than fifty years. She enjoyed teaching Bible stories to young children. She worked for many years as a nurse at the B&B Nursing Home in Comanche. One of her favorite activities was participating in league bowling in Duncan. She celebrated her ninetieth birthday bowling in league play. She also enjoyed playing golf, walking and swimming.

In March of 2000, when she became challenged with dementia, she moved to Austin, TX, where she lived the last years of her life in an assisted-living residence near her daughter Mary Dane and her many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, who would visit her often.

Opal was preceded in death by her sister, Olga, in 1924, her beloved husband, J.W. Bugs Mitchell, in 1963, her oldest son James William Jim Mitchell, Jr., in 1990, and her brother Shelby, in 2000.

Survivors include: her daughter, Mary Dane Riddles of Austin, TX; her son, Ronald Dean Mitchell, of Duncan, OK; seven grandchildren; thirteen great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held for Mrs. Mitchell on Wednesday, August 28, 2002, at the Comanche Church of Christ with Scott Hoover officiating. Burial was in the Fairlawn Cemetery under the direction of Dudley Funeral Home of Comanche. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society.