Cumberland County mourns the loss of one of its pillars, James Robert “Bob” Mitchell Jr., who passed away on Feb. 28, at the age of 93. 

Mitchell’s Drugs has been in business since 1926, and Bob Mitchell was the second owner and operator of the Main Street mainstay after he took over the business for his uncle, Joe Mitchell. 

Bob was a testament to the community with his civic-minded servitude. He served as Democratic Party chairman, campaign manager for several Democratic candidates, was a founding member of the Crossville Chamber of Commerce, a Mason, a Shriner, served on the Cumberland County Election Commission, police commission, Appalachian Regional Commission, served on the boards of the Tennessee State Board of Pharmacy, First National Bank, Crossville Housing Authority and Cumberland County Playhouse and sponsored countless youth sports teams and programs.

“He loved to donate to local causes,” said son-in-law Jim Petty. 

“He served on a variety of these things,” added daughter Dr. Beth Petty.

Jim said Bob was a “Democrat to the core,” and the drug store was considered to be the unofficial Democratic Party headquarters. He added that if a Democratic candidate or politician was in town, they’d make their way to the drug store.

To know him was to be his friend – even if you were a Republican. 

“Dad never met a stranger,” Beth said through tears, “and he never had an enemy that I know of.”

She added that as hardcore Democrat as he was, her father believed in old politics and compromise.

“Back in the day, he thought politics were a means to help people. He didn’t see it as a negative thing, he saw it as a positive thing,” Beth said. Then she laughed as she remembered, “He said he always voted for the person that he thought he would do the best job. It just so happened that they were usually a Democrat.”

The “Coffee Drinkers” around the first table in the drug store, widely regarded as the “Liars Club,” would agree that Mitchell could serve his fellow man and play pranks on him with equal enthusiasm. He often held court with his friends at the Liars Club, telling big fish stories, chewing the fat and talking politics.

“They would tell stories, and they might be true and they might not be true,” Beth said. “I’ve always said, ‘There’s a thread of truth in everything my dad said.’ A thread – there’s probably a whole lot of embellishment that goes on.

“Boy, he could tell the stories,” she continued. “He was probably best known for his tall tales.”

Bob knew that humor was just good medicine. With an excellent sense of humor, he dubbed Jim his “no-good son-in-law,” because he hit the no-good trifecta when he not only graduated from Auburn, but was a Republican and married his daughter. Jim said he’d answered the phone at the drug store and even the Tennessee State Board of Pharmacy members would refer to him as the “no-good son-in-law.” Bob could get everybody on board with his jokes. He, Arther Harrison and Bob Patton with Plateau Properties, Inc. across the street would all the time prank each other and bring their families into it.

“We would all prank each other all the time,” Jim said. Once, he pranked his father-in-law by replacing his Franklin Delano Roosevelt photo with a photo of Ronald Reagan. Jim laughed said Bob told him he was fired.

Bob was from Livingston, where he lived with his parents, his twin sister and little brother. During the Great Depression, he came to Crossville at the age of 10, sent to live with his childless Uncle Joe and Aunt Ruth. They raised Bob like their own, sent him to school and had him work on their farm Silver Springs Farm on Old Jamestown Hwy., raising beef cattle. 

Bob attended school in Crossville up until he was a junior and then he attended the Tennessee Military Institute in Sweetwater, TN. He then attended Tennessee Wesleyan University’s pre-pharmacy program, before getting his degree in pharmacology from University of Tennessee-Memphis in 1952. 

Bob was an avid UT Volunteers fan and supported them as much as he could. He went to countless UT ballgames and never missed a home game in several decades. 

Bob and his cousin, who was at dental school in Memphis at the same time he was in pharmacy school there, would leave on a Friday, drive to Knoxville, go to the ballgame and drive back for school.

“That’s how dedicated he was to UT,” Jim said. “Avid is putting it mildly.”

“As soon as I could walk, he drug me up there to every football game, without fail,” Beth said.  

He married Mary Lou Gates in July 1955, and welcomed two children, Jim and Beth.  

Beth said when she was very young, Bob and fellow pharmacist John Smith would take calls from the hospital to provide medications after hours because the hospital did not have a 24-hour pharmacy. 

“He did that for anybody. He never really turned anybody away,” she said. Thinking of her sweet father’s generous heart, she cried as she said, “And if they couldn’t pay for it he’d charge it to them, and he might have gotten paid, he might not have. It didn’t matter to him.”

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary Lou Mitchell; son Jim Mitchell (Jacquie); daughter Dr. Elizabeth Petty (Jim); grandchildren, Elizabeth Grace Petty (Colton), Robert Alexander “Alex” Petty, Marissa Ava Van Kley (Kent) and James Dewey Mitchell; brother Richard “Ossie” Mitchell (Ruth); and nephews Scotty Mitchell, Mark Mitchell and Andy Mitchell.

Funeral services will be held on Sunday, March 5, 3 p.m. at Bilbrey Funeral Home with burial to follow at Green Acres Memory Gardens. The family will receive friends from 1-3 p.m. prior to the service.