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Reception honoring the Mitchells is Sunday

The Grady County Historical Society is hosting a reception this weekend honoring the generous donors of a 151-year-old piano that was given earlier this year to the Grady County Museum and History Center.
The reception honoring Mr. and Mrs. Prentiss Mitchell will be held from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the museum.
Local musicians Ed Self and Ed Timmerman will entertain audiences on the 1867 Mathushek square grand piano the Mitchells recently donated to the museum and light refreshments will be served.
The piano has been in the Mitchell family for three generations.
It was originally purchased in the early 1900s by Frank O. Mitchell, who at the time was a resident of Quincy, Illinois. After, the family relocated to Memphis, Tenn.
In 1933, Frank gave the piano to his son, Hoy N. Mitchell, and his bride, Mary Lee Stone Mitchell, as a wedding gift.
Mary Lee was an accomplished pianist and organist who spent many hours playing the Mathushek piano herself, as well as using it to teach young children piano lessons.
Mrs. Mitchell was an elementary school teacher and also the music supervisor for the school district in Jackson, Miss. Through her work in education, she taught Music Appreciation to students in the nine public schools in Jackson.
During her teaching career, Mitchell also taught music at the Methodist orphanage in Jackson where she met her adopted son, Prentiss Raiford Mitchell. Hoy and Mary Lee adopted Prentiss in 1946.
At the time of Mary Lee’s death in 1980, Prentiss was residing in Tallahassee. He inherited the piano and had it completely restored by Gary Bowser of Bowser Piano & Organ Service of Tallahassee.
Neither Prentiss nor Patricia play, and no one in the family was interested in the piano, so the couple decided to offer it to the Grady County Museum & History Center.

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