Theresa Strangi Mitchell

Theresa Strangi Mitchell, 77, of Biloxi, MS, passed away Saturday, May 17, 2008, after a brief illness. "Miss Theresa", or "TC" as she was known to her family and many other, was a native of Biloxi but moved through the years, having lived in Alabama, Alaska and Nevada. She had traveled to Italy numerous times, recently visiting her father's birthplace and researching her ancestry. Much to her children's dismay, she was always packed and ready to go on her next adventure, eschewing tour groups and loving to travel alone! Her first trip to Italy in 2001 was taken on the spur of the moment with no reservations and no detailed itinerary, but she promised to call home frequently whenever she moved from one location to the other! Through her life she loved to garden and always had something blooming in her yard. She worked as a bookkeeper for her father's lumber company, Strangi Lumber. She was a licensed realtor, a talented artist who painted in all mediums and even tried her hand at sculpting. She was a docent at the Biloxi Seafood Museum and woked most recently at Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs as a ceramic painter. Theresa loved her immediate family and instilled in them a sense of compassion, a strong connection to family and a love for the arts, never missing the opportunity to visit museums wherever she was. She wanted to "live to the age of 200 to do and see it all"! She was extremely intelligent, was always dressed impeccably and was constantly on the go, never wanting to miss what life had to offer her. Ms. Mitchell was preceded in death by her parents, Ora and Santos Strangi, Sr., seven siblings, an infant daughter, Joan, and her son-in-law, Wayne D. Kinnaird. She is survived by her children, Jennifer Kinnaird of Baton Rouge, LA; Jim (Lois) Mitchell of Woodward, OK, Shelley (Marc) Hamann of Peachtree City, GA, and Keith Mitchell of Sommerville, MA. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Scott Kinnaird of Baton Rouge, Jenny Mitchell Patterson of Oklahoma, Andrew and Abigail Hamann of Peachtree City and Chance Mitchell of Sommerville. In addition, she had four great grandchildren, Branden Kinnaird and Westen Kinnaird of LA, and Timothy Leiswald and Jayden Patterson OK. Annie Strangi Meeboer, her beloved older sister, also survives her as well as many neices and nephews. Visitation is Tuesday, May 20, 2008, from 6 until 8 p.m. at Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home, Howard Avenue, in Biloxi. Funeral services will be held Wednesday in the funeral home chapel at 10 a.m. Interment will follow in Southern Memorial Park.