In Passing
by Petrine Day Mitchum
Dorothy Clements Spence Mitchum 2 May 1919 – 12 April 2014
O
n a recent sunny Sunday, my brothers Jim, Chris, and I bade a final farewell to our mother and longtime Montecito resident, Dorothy Clements Spence Mitchum, who passed from this world peacefully at Serenity House Hospice on April 12, just 20 days shy of her 95th birthday. We were accompanied aboard Santa Barbara’s Double Dolphin by her only sister, Bette Compton, our cousin Janeen Gaul, eight of Dorothy’s 16 grand and great-grandchildren and another half-dozen very significant others.
Child of a “Laborer” A daughter of William Lemuel Spence and Ina Clements Spence, Dorothy was born in Camden, Delaware, May 2, 1919. Her father, known as Will, was listed on her birth certificate as a “laborer,” but she was proud of the fact that he was a head cook for the Camden canning factory of Libby, McNeil, Libby. Although he died young, at 56, it was easy to imagine him stirring great vats of tomatoes as Dorothy described him. She always had a way with words.
To Meet Again on Easter Island After an emotional eulogy by Chris, we cast Dorothy’s ashes to the Pacific so that she might fulfill her half of the pact made long ago with our late father, Robert (who passed in 1997), to meet up at Easter Island. With roses tossed and champagne poured overboard, Dorothy went on her way. Dorothy loved dogs, and the
ashes of her final two pets, Emma, a Border Collie, and Katie, a rescued terrier, were cast in her wake as well. Moments later, we spotted a gray whale and her calf portside, just 20 feet away, on their northern migration. As the beautiful creatures breeched and spouted several times, our captain explained that they hug the shoreline to avoid the predatory orcas that hunt the calves. It was a fact Dorothy, who loved all animals, would have found fascinating. A dolphin and a curious sea lion also paid their respects as we headed for shore.
Dorothy Clements Spence Mitchum, widow of actor Robert Mitchum, died on April 12, just weeks before her 95th birthday
Wife of an Actor Dorothy lived a remarkable life, most famously as the wife of Robert (Charles) Mitchum whom she married in the cabbage-scented kitchen of a Methodist parson in Dover, Delaware, on March 16, 1940. She met Robert, two years her elder, when she was 14, after a brief courtship with his handsome younger brother, John, a fellow student at Caesar Rodney High School where Dorothy excelled at English and basketball and served as May Queen, with her little sister, Bette, as her flower girl. Robert had already begun his vagabond life, hitching around the country by rail, and when he returned to Delaware and met the beautiful dark-haired girl his brother was courting, according to Dorothy, “That was all she wrote.” The match was not immediately met with approval by her mother and other authority figures, who labeled Robert “a bum.” But Dorothy’s retort was, “He’s not a bum. He’s just poor.” She believed that Robert was destined for greatness.
Dorothy and Robert Mitchum on Oscar night, 1946; Robert received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role as Lt. Walker in 1945’s The Story of G.I. Joe
Dorothy attended Peirce College in Philadelphia after high school, with the aim of becoming a secretary, but she abandoned that ambition to accompany her husband to Hollywood, where he eventually found his fortune as an actor. Along the way, the newlyweds worked for astrologer Carroll Righter. Dorothy scribed horoscopes and developed a lifelong interest in astrology. She often called to read me my monthly horoscope from Town & Country magazine.
Writer and Homemaker Dorothy’s writing career was put on hold when she gave birth to James Robin Mitchum, on May 8, 1941. Christopher was born less than two years later on October 16, 1943. By this time Robert’s career had taken off and Dorothy had her hands full raising two sons while being a glamorous Hollywood wife. She was a founding member of SHARE (Share Happily And Reap Endlessly), a charitable organization of Los Angeles women who still produce an annual show to benefit mentally challenged individuals. In her decades of service with SHARE, Dorothy displayed her talents as a dancer in many shows and, later, when she decided to hang up her dancing shoes, as an organizer.
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