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HE STARTED AS DRIVER, RETIRED A MILLIONAIRE

August 27, 1999
Section: OBITUARIES
Page: B5

By Steve Gibson Bee Staff Writer

--Joe Marcus Mitchell, who worked seven days a week at his Sacramento wholesale produce business and retired a millionaire, died Tuesday at 75. For the past three years, he had suffered from Parkinson's disease and dementia and had resided in a nursing home, said one of his sons, Emery Mitchell.

Starting as a truck driver, he spent 45 years at Lucky Fruit and Produce Co., at Fifth Street and Broadway, eventually becoming a partner, then sole owner, his son said.

By the time Mr. Mitchell retired in 1991, the business employed 430 people and grossed about $43 million annually, his son said. The company did business with all the major supermarket chains in the region, including Lucky Stores, Raley's and Safeway.

Mr. Mitchell's work was his hobby and his hobby was working, his son said.

"He liked the camaraderie of working on the produce dock with his friends," his son said. "From four in the morning until six in the evening, he would be there. He never took vacations. He loved the job."

"He had three back surgeries, but he kept going. Nothing slowed him down. He was the type of guy who was kind of gruff but had a big heart. One minute he would be yelling at you, and the next he would be buying you a beer and a sandwich."

The Coleman, Texas, native was one of six children of Grace Smith Mitchell and James Mitchell. He joined the Army after graduating from Novice High. He spent World War II as a military policeman, serving at stateside bases.

After being discharged from the Army in Texas in 1946, he drove to California with a childhood friend and ended up in Sacramento with a job pouring concrete. A short time later, he began driving a truck for Lucky Fruit.

His first year in Sacramento, Mr. Mitchell was out dancing with friends at an Auburn Boulevard nightspot when he met his future wife, Lorraine Dewald. They were married Nov. 27, 1947.

"He worked hard at that business, you better believe it," his wife recalled. "That place was his home, he loved it. He used to say he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered over the place. I said no. I told him he would haunt everybody there."

In addition to his wife, of Elk Grove, and his son, Emery, who resides in Granite Bay, survivors include another son, Dennis Mitchell of Elk Grove; a daughter, Diane Mitchell of Sacramento; a brother, Johnie Mitchell of Elk Grove; and two sisters, Grace Yates of Fort Worth, Texas, and Nancy Isbell of Arrowhead, Okla.

There will be a visitation from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday at Harry A. Nauman & Son, 4041 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento. Burial will be private.

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