Rachel Towell

Rachel Woodley Towell, beloved mother, Nana, teacher, aunt, sister and friend entered heaven on Dec. 6, 2021.

Rachel Towell’s Celebration of Life Brunch
Please RSVP for the Brunch at maryann.mitchener@mycrossroads.co

There will also be a Mass for Rachel Towell
April 9, 2022 at 10:00am
Resurrection Anglican Church
600 South Correll Street
Landis, NC 28088.

If you can’t attend the Mass, you are welcome to come to the brunch!

Rachel was born on August 11, 1926 in Columbia, NC and lived a full and impactful 95 years on this earth. Rachel was a remarkable one-of-a-kind woman. She loved life, she loved people and was always up for a good time with friends and family! Rachel was very active in the community. A few of the many ways she served was Chaplain for the Salvation Army Women’s Auxillary, Bible Teaching Association President, Life Center Board of Directors and she was chosen Lion’s Club Laywoman of the Year. She also was very active in her church including serving on the vestry, prayer team and as a lay reader. In this day of technology, Rachel believed in sending a personal handwritten card each day to anyone who needed encouragement or a word of affirmation and appreciation. She was known to buy and bring lunch frequently to the pastors, staff, and other volunteers. Rachel was extraordinarily generous. Whenever she became aware of a need, she was quick to respond supporting missionaries as well as many of her students and anyone in a store who was short of cash. Rachel’s specialty was homemade pound cake. Every doctor, dentist, friend, and neighbor of hers got a pound cake for their birthday. Rachel was known years ago to run out to the garbage men with a slice of poundcake and hot chocolate as they were driving off!

Rachel was well known in our neighborhood as “the Popcorn Lady”. She opened up her home each Halloween to 125+ trick or treaters. Each group of children were invited to sit around her large dining room table, eat popcorn and visit with each other. One girl said, “The popcorn house is a warm and friendly place on a scary night! It is our favorite place to go!” This was a 45-year-old tradition spanning multiple generations.

Rachel went to high school in Far Rockaway, NY and for one year worked daily in the swimming pool helping a girl with polio learn to walk. At the end of that year, the girl could walk normally. Rachel loved swimming and was a member of the Far Rockaway synchronized swimming team. She also was an avid bridge player, and enjoyed square dancing, crossword puzzles and loved being in the ocean at the beach.

Rachel was very smart, double majoring in chemistry and math with honors from UNC Chapel Hill and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She was the first woman accepted into medical school at UNC Chapel Hill, but the first time she went to the morgue she decided being a doctor wasn’t for her. She chose being a schoolteacher instead and loved it! Rachel taught Math at Concord High School for 23 years. She had a way of taking complicated math problems and breaking them down into a simple way that students could understand. She loved her students and once she went to court with a troubled student to advocate for her. While she was speaking to the judge, she teared up. The judge said, “Mam, if you don’t stop crying, you’re going to make me cry!” She joyfully tutored many students from state representatives to students from poor homes, most of whom increased their grades by at least one grade level.

Rachel had a great sense of humor and was always smiling. “I’m doing great” she would say even when she was going through a tough time. When others would say, “Have a great day.” , she would reply, “Every day is a great day with the Lord!” Rachel’s spiritual life blossomed when she gave her heart fully to the Lord in 1964. She loved the Lord with all her heart and would often say, I can’t wait to be with the Lord! She had a dream three weeks again and woke up smiling. She said “I was just with Jesus.”

Rachel had a heart of gratitude always being thankful for the many blessings in this life. She saw the cup half full instead of half empty. She was kind, merciful, compassionate, and appreciative of everything others did for her especially toward the end of her life.

Rachel was predeceased by her husband, Clyde Towell and her son, Jimmy Mitchener. She is survived by her children, Mary Ann Mitchener, Ruth Jones and her husband, Harley, Sam Mitchener and his wife Laura, her grandchildren, Matthew Mitchener and his wife, Betty, John Mitchener, Rachel Mitchener, her brother Sam Woodley and his wife, Sue, her sister Mary Anderson and her husband, Alby.

Memorials can be sent to: Salvation Army Women’s Auxillary, P.O. Box 511, Concord, NC 28026 or Resurrection Anglican Church, 600 South Correll Street, Landis, NC 28088.