Elizabeth Mitchell, Friends School teacher

Elizabeth Thompson Mitchell, a retired Friends School teacher, died of pneumonia Nov. 26 at Roland Park Place Retirement Community.

The former Poplar Hill resident was 90.

Born Elizabeth Grace Thompson in Laurel, Miss., she was the daughter of William Crawford Thompson, a Department of the Interior surveyor, and Grace Walton.

She was a 1943 graduate of Forest High School in Forest, Miss. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in piano from Mississippi State College for Women and held a master’s degree in education from Goucher College.

She met her future husband, Joe L. Mitchell, on the playground of the Forest School when they were both 5 years old.

They moved to Baltimore in the 1940s. Mrs. Mitchell taught fourth grade at the Friends School of Baltimore from 1964 to 1988. Her son said she had a keen interest in teaching creative writing and encouraged her students to critique, edit and rework their writing.

“Mom was a lifelong learner and seeker of peace through her inner spirituality,” said her son, Charles Mitchell of Stoneleigh. “She melded her learning from her Baptist upbringing with the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches of her adult life, the Quaker philosophies of her 24 years teaching at Friends School, and her meditations with both the Zen Buddhist community of Baltimore and the All Saints Convent of Catonsville.”

She was an avid gardener, music lover and reader, and had written a family memoir.

In retirement, she and her husband traveled throughout Europe and Thailand with hostel groups for seniors.

Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. David’s Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Ave., where she was a communicant.

In addition to her husband of 68 years, a retired Westinghouse program manager, and her son, survivors include two daughters, Elizabeth Henkin of Lanham and Melissa Pitts of Baltimore; 12 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.