Ermine Louise Mitchell

Submitted by: Margaret E. Haynes

Biography written © by: Margaret E. Haynes

Ermine Louise Bushman, know to many as "Louise", was born May 15, 1911 in LaHarpe, Kansas. She was the daughter of John Henry Bushman and Rachel Babara (Billbe) Bushman.

When she was a very young age, her family moved to Collinsville, Oklahoma, an when she was six they moved to Blackwell, Oklahoma. There she grew up and attended school, all except about a year and half when they lived in Hutchinson, Kansas and Amarillo, Texas. Her father worked in the zinc smelters, and moved some times, following places of work. In 1927, they moved to Tonkawa, Oklahoma.

On August 29, 1929 she married Claude C. Gravel, he preceded her in death. She married a second time to Jesse Charles Mitchell, on February 14, 1936. Except for one year in Great Bend, Kansas, Jesse and "Louise" lived all their married life in Tonkawa. He died May 15, 1982, and was buried in Blackwell.

On July 20, 1986, in Tonkawa, she married James Leonard Hembree, he preceded her in death on June 6, 1991, and was buried in Blackwell.

She was a member of the First Christian Church of Tonkawa, and was active in the Christian Women's Missionary Society, serving as a teacher and officer.

Ermine Louise (Bushman) Gravel Mitchell Hembree, died at the age of ninety-one years, on Friday, December 27, 2002 at her home in Tonkawa, Oklahoma.

Survivors included a son, Samuel Charles Mitchell of Scottsdale, Arizona; two grandsons; three great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.

She was the last living child of the twelve children of John Henry and Rachel Barbara (Billbe) Bushman.

She was preceded in death by her parents; three husbands; a son, Raymond John Gravel; a grandson; four sisters, Carrie Belle (Bushman) Cheney, Anna May (Bushman) Collyar, Nora Pearl Bushman who died as a child in Kansas, and Wilma Lea (Bushman) Love; and six brothers, Frank Sanford Bushman, Henry Oliver Bushman, Herschel Charles Bushman, Daniel Webster Bushman, Robert Wallace Bushman and James Donald Bushman.

The funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon, Decembe 31, 2002 in the First Christian Church of Tonkawa, with the Rev. Ray Paschen officiating. McCafferty-Bolick-Green Funeral Home of Tonkawa was in charge of arrangements. Burial was in Blackwell IOOF Cemetery, in Blackwell, Kay Co., Oklahoma.