Chet Mitchell

God called another cowboy home on Thursday, October 25, 2018. Chet was born to homesteaders near the small ranching community of Roy, New Mexico. It was here that he learned to rope, ride, love horses and care for the cattle. He also figured out he’d better eat the pinto beans his mom cooked real quick or they’d get gritty with sand as the dust-bowl raged across the plains. He graduated from high school in Santa Fe, then joined the Navy. The kid who’d never seen water bigger than a filled stock tank, landed on a Destroyer in the South Pacific during WWII. Three kamikaze attacks left him with a broken nose and he still didn’t know how to swim. The war ended so he moved to Taos to run the dairy in El Prado with his brother, Edd. Chet married sweet Marion from Santa Fe who bore him a daughter, Sandra. He raised calves and milked cows, roped and wrestled steers and made a million hoof prints over the mountains and across the prairie. He prayed for rain then cursed the mud. Chet liked to drink, dance and eat good food. He put on rodeos at the San Geronimo Lodge and match races wherever he could, always putting his money on the horses his daughter rode. He bucked bales of hay and got bucked off horses, built fences and pulled windmills. He taught you when to hang onto a horse and when to jump off. Chet searched for gold in old mines and for horses with kind eyes and big hearts. Whenever he saw you, he made you feel like the most important person in the room; because at that moment you were to him. A stock contractor and an “extra” in some movies, Chet was the star in many Taos Fiesta parades. Most importantly, he was Hugh and Elizabeth’s baby boy, brother to Sovola, Edd and Elaine, Sandra’s daddy, John, Marion and Wesley’s grandfather and Super Hero! George’s father-in-law and the constant companion of a big dog named “Boo”. Memorial for Chet will be held on Sunday, November 4, 2018 at 11 AM at his home. Reception to follow at The Historic Taos Inn. Arrangements by Rivera Family Funeral Home – Taos. To share a memory, please visit our website at www.riverafuneralhome.com