Posted October 11, 2007 to People | Section Home | Print

Couple Proves Laughter and Love Key to Longevity

By Robert Hightower

Special from the Philadelphia Tribune

PHILADELPHIA -- When Mattie Louise first met Mitchell Atkins, she admitted not thinking much of him. Seventy-seven matrimonial years later, they are still in love and still each other's best friend.

Mitchell, 95, who is known by the moniker "Daddy Mitch," began courting Mattie, who will reach 101 years of age today in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1928 while she was visiting friends.

Mattie said they were brought together by one of her friends.

"We met through my sister's boyfriend," she said.

After initially being rejected, Mitchell resorted to a method of wearing her down. Mattie expressed that it was one of the sweetest gestures that anyone has ever extended to her.

"He sent me roses every Friday for two years until we got married," she said.

Because the Atkins have been together for such an extended period of time, they share a sense of humor that is part of the formula that has kept them in marital bliss for all these years.

"Now he won't pull up a weed for me," Mattie jokingly said while breaking into a smile. "He won't even give me a briar."

Mitchell and Mattie were married in 1930 and later moved to Philadelphia in 1947 to the same West Philadelphia house that they live in today.

They chose Philadelphia because they had friends and family there.

"When we first move around here, we were the only colored folks on the block," Mitchell said. "As more Black people moved in, the whites moved out."

Over the course of their marriage, the Atkins have had seven children, 16 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and eight great-great grand children.

Mitchell made a living as a receiving clerk at the now-defunct Pennsylvania Warehouse and Supply Company for over 30 years, finally retiring in 1974.

Mattie, who was a homemaker, said that no matter how tired Mitchell was when he came home, he always made time for her.

"He would come home and I would sit on his lap and he would just listen to me talk," she said. "He never complained, not once. Then he would get up and go back to work."

Mitchell, who served as a deacon at the Deliverance Evangelistic Church for nearly 30 years, was the head of a devoutly Christian family.

Mattie attributes deep religious beliefs and a healthy lifestyle which included no drinking or smoking as the reason for living so long.

"It's Jesus," she said. "We are a god-fearing family. I believe in prayer."

To Mattie, it is easy to describe the last 77 years with Mitchell and what she refers to as her "tight-knitted family."

She said, "It has been beautiful."