Winston Mitchell wears many hats

My Uncle Winston

By Nikki Barrett

3/3/98

Winston is a man full of old stories,

I could listen to him for hours on end.

He loves to collect and talk about tractors,

And it seems he is always making a new friend.

He wears cowboy boots,

And Bib overalls.

He makes all sorts of gadgets,

Like some he has made are antler dolls.

He loves all his family,

He loves all his friends.

Winston is a good man,

A brave man, and most of all, my friend.

Taken from a scrapbook owned by Winston Mitchell.

The above poem, just 80 words long, describes Landusky's Winston Mitchell to a tee. If you have known him for a spell, then you know how eccentric he is. If you have only met him once, you know you have made a dear friend.

The PCN met up with Winston and his wife, Lucille, last week in the couple's home situated on the 3,000 acre Mitchell Ranch in Phillips County. The initial objective was to talk with Winston about his time in the military during World War II. Winston served honorably during WWII. His date of induction was February of 1943 and his date of separation was in December of 1945. In that time span, Winston served both stateside and in Italy and received the American Theater Ribbon, World War II Victory Medal and three Bronze Stars. Winston was a Radar Mechanic during his time in the Army, but he doesn't talk about it much. In fact his honors were only discovered because Winston loaned this author a memory book filled with clippings that he has collected over the years. The book is full of poems, certificates, well wishes from friends as well as his service record and an old clipping from a newspaper that reads:

15th AAF in Italy – Cpl. Winston H. Mitchell, son of Mr. and Mrs. Vivian C. Mitchell, Landusky, has arrived in Italy. He is assigned as a communications mechanic with one of the oldest heavy bombardment groups in the Mediterranean theater.

His group, commanded by Col. Robert H Warren, Yankton, S.D., has flown more than 425 combat missions. It was the first USAAF unit to be based in Africa, first to be based in Italy, first to bomb in Europe. The group's success against the enemy while operating from bases in North Africa won it two Distinguished Unit Citations.

Winston, now 92, was drafted when he was 20 and after finishing basic training in St. Petersburg, Florida, was sent to Naples.

"I went from the palm trees in Florida and got to Italy during the middle of winter," Winston recalls. "I don't remember if I saw any snow, but we slept in a tent, right on the shore, and it was so cold that we had to sleep in our woolen coats."

Winston was in Italy for five months – where he fixed and ran radars -- and said that at the time he was ashamed that he didn't serve longer.

"It wasn't my fault," said Winston. "It was all about timing. But at the time I wished I could have served for a longer time. I was never anywhere near any blood and for that I am thankful. I was just ignorant of the world at that age."

Winston was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in three months after the conclusion of WWII – in December of 1945 -- and returned to Phillips County and his life as a farmer and rancher. Winston said that prior to his military service that his parents had taken him on a few trips out of Montana, but as far as he was concerned, Phillip's County was the world.

"Montana has always been my favorite place and I love living in Phillips County," Winston said.

It would be about two years after returning to Phillips County that Lucille would make her way to the area – via Indiana -- and eventually meet her future husband.

"My mother had an uncle who had a small place over here and I brought my grandmother out to see him and I met Winston then, in 1947," recalls Lucille. In 1948, Lucille's parents bought land near the Mitchell Ranch and moved to Landusky permanently.

Lucille moved to Malta and worked for the County Superintendent while her younger sister attended high school.

"Then my sister married her brother," Lucille laughed. She said that there weren't any cowboys in Indiana and she supposes that was the initial attraction she had to Winston. Over 65-years later, the couple boasts four children, nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

Besides his life as a farmer and rancher, Winston is known across Phillips County and Eastern Montana for the things he collects and builds. Lucille points to a contraption in the couple's living room. The unit has pulleys, belts, cranks and such and sits atop a set of wooden legs.

"I don't know what that is supposed to be," Lucille admitted. "He is always tinkering with things. He finds the parts around the ranch and he likes to go to the store in Lewistown and get brass things. He loves brass."

"I've always got five or six so-called projects going," Winston admitted.

"It's his main occupation now," added Lucille.

Winston is famous for the lamps he constructs – many have been auctioned off at the Phillips County Hospital Foundation's events – as well as the trains he builds out of a mismatch of metal pieces – many have been featured in parades throughout Phillips County.

"Quite a few people have pieces built by Winston in their homes," Lucille said.

"I have been making these things for about the last 22 years and I have about 10-projects around the house that might outlive me," Winston joked. "But I will never know it. I enjoy spending my time tinkering with my so-called projects."

Winston is also a poet, though he claims he is no good at it. Inside the Memories book on loan from Winston – which includes a 2008 entry form in the First State Bank car show in which he entered his 1976 Buick Limited, several different Charter Member certificates from different farming groups and his letter of completion, circa 1942, from the La Salle Extension University for completing his training in Farm Engineering and Management – are a dozen hand written poems.

"I write them as fast as I think of them," said Winston, admitting that he has a number of other Memory books around the house. "Some poetry doesn't rhyme, I write poetry that rhymes."

In 1997, Winston had his poem published in the Poetic Voices of America.

Fantasy on Trees

I think I would to be

Something as special as a tree

Upon whose bosom snow has lain

No axe or saw to cause me pain.

I "wood" live and face the northern gale

Not die and be an oaken pail.

Let flickers peck their holes in me.

Bees please fill those holes

With wild honey.

Let children swing beneath my limb

No cost to them, an outdoor gym.

Let lovers meet beneath my boughs,

I "wood" listen to their wedding vows.

Unlike bald men in linen suits,

I "wood" harbor "hare" within my roots.

I "wood" "pine" to be some old one's coffin,

Just once or twice, but not too often.

I "wood" become some hermit's hut,

If it weren't "fir" falling on my butt.

Poems are made by fools, you see;

Joyce Kilmer, April, wife and me.

Winston Mitchell