By Bill Stevens, Times Staff Writer
Friday, December 17, 2010
TRINITY — Jim Mitchell inspired comparisons to Ben Cartwright, tall and rugged in the saddle, strong and straightforward — a cowboy whose word meant something.
But unlike the TV western hero, Jim Mitchell was real. He punched cattle with his men for years, long before western Pasco County had paved roads and shopping centers. He drove herds up what is now U.S. 19.
His wife, Dorothy, loved to travel. But Jim was happy just to be on the range, branding his herd, kicking dirt in a fire.
"He never wanted to leave Pasco,'' said his son, Dewey Mitchell, a well-known Realtor and former Olympian and Alabama football star. "This was his home. He loved cattle, he loved this lifestyle.''
Jim Mitchell, whose name graces a high school, a highway and a hospital rehab center that benefitted from the family's philanthropy ...