Beth Mitchell

Elizabeth Webster Mitchell (October 7, 1972 – March 20, 1998) was an American educator and competitive shag dancer. In 1998 she won the National Shag Dance Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Mitchell was killed during the 1998 Gainesville–Stoneville tornado outbreak a week after she won the championship. She was posthumously inducted into the Beach Shaggers National Hall of Fame's Keepers Of The Dance in 2002.

Early life and family Mitchell was born on October 7, 1972, in Greensboro, North Carolina, to Worth Mitchell and Nancy Lee King. Through her mother she is descended from Scottish emigrants George Irving and Jane McDonald, who came to the United States in 1834 from Closeburn, Dumfriesshire aboard the Hector. She descended maternally from the Robertson family, a colonial Virginian family, through her great-great grandmother Margaret Hurt Robertson. Through her Robertson ancestry, she was also a relative of mathematician Ione Grogan. In 1990 she made the All-Star Cheerleading Squad for the 42nd Annual East-West All-Star Games in Greensboro. After high school, Mitchell earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega.

Career Upon graduating from college, Mitchell worked as a second grade teacher at Stoneville Elementary School in Stoneville, North Carolina. She and her dance partner, Brad Kinard, won the championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 1998. Mitchell's mother was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Mitchell died on the scene from the impact. She was one of two people in Stoneville killed during the 1998 Gainesville-Stoneville tornado outbreak.

Mitchell is buried at Stoneville Municipal Cemetery.

Legacy

After her death, the Beth Mitchell Memorial Scholarship was founded. The scholarship, organized through the National Shag Dance Championships, is awarded to National Shag Dance contestants who are planning to attend college. A dance competition named after her, the Beth Mitchell Memorial Shag Dance Competition, is held annually in Greensboro.

Friendship Park in downtown Stoneville was built as a memorial to Mitchell and Powell Hickman, a local farmer who was also killed by the 1998 tornado.

In 2002 she was added to the Beach Shaggers National Hall of Fame's Keepers Of The Dance. She is also listed in Shag Atlanta's memorial.