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Jeff Dorris

Deliberations from Dorris

Jeff Dorris is the Editor of the Delta Dunklin Democrat

Editorial

Keith

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Jeff Dorris

jdorris@dddnews.com

We lost Keith Mitchell this week.

It still seems surreal to me.

Keith was one of the first to welcome me when I moved to Kennett.

We had many wonderful conversations and I will miss him beyond measure.

I’ll miss his entrances.

He never called me Jeff, it was always Dorris.

He never walked into the newspaper and said, “I’m going to speak with Jeff for a moment.”

Not Keith.

He’d come bounding in, shouting, “Dorris! Let me holler at ya for a minute.”

He’d critique my columns. Some he liked and those he didn’t he’d say, “Well, Dorris, you’ll probably ruffle some feathers, but it needed to be said.”

We were members of the Kennett Rotary Club.

I’ll miss seeing him come into the meeting, wearing the hat of the week.

I’ll miss so many things about Keith.

Keith just always seemed to be around.

He cared about Kennett.

Every town hall meeting, he was there.

Some would only have a handful of people, but Keith would be there.

Keith was a giver.

He gave and gave.

You could never record all his contributions.

He was one of the rare ones that literally put his money where his mouth is.

I’m not going to ramble on because Keith wouldn’t want that.

He’d simply say, do good.

I’m sad today.

Sad for his family and his friends.

But mostly, I’m sad for Kennett.

The magnitude of the loss of this charitable human being has not even started to resonate.

It’s a void of philanthropy that quite probably will never be filled.

Thank you, Keith.

See you out there.

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