Mitchell Sisters
Let’s Make Music Tonight
The Mitchell Sisters were not actually sisters by birth, but next door neighbors who found they had a common interest in music in their early teen age years. Patsy (Mitchell) was born Patsy DeFendi, the daughter of Warren and Vada DeFendi. Patsy was born in Dubuque, Iowa and her family later moved to Rockford, Illinois (IL). Nancy was Nancy Mitchell, the daughter of Ernie and Doris Mitchell. Nancy’s father died on July 4, 1944 in World War II somewhere in France. Her mother found work as a waitress and later owned a couple of restaurants and bars.
As the teen-age girls began to explore their musical interests, they sang like a natural duo. Patsy sang all the harmony parts while Nancy sang lead. Patsy could play most any instrument she chose to. When she wasn't playing her guitar along with Nancy, she played upright bass.
The Mitchell Sisters entered every contest they could find and with their natural talent, they won many of them. Those contests led to appearances on the local radio station (WROK) in Rockford, IL. They sand on what were called "package shows" back then. The package shows featured artists such as The Prairie Ramblers, Arkie The Arkansas Woodchopper and others from the legendary WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago, IL which was less than a hundred miles away. The Mitchell Sisters were not booked by WLS, but they had an agent who booked them on the shows, gaining them exposure with the Barn Dance fans. The Mitchell Sisters became regulars on a local show called Rockford Hayloft Jamboree.
The Rockford Hayloft Jamboree started entertaining fans in the Rockford, Illnois area on a Sunday afternoon in March of 1951. The show was first an informal gathering of entertainers who put on a show at the local Lincoln Park School as a benefit show for a friend. The audience must have liked what they heard as it became a more formal program. The Rockford Hayloft Jamboree soon outgrew the gym and moved to the Rockford Theatre where the crowds continued to grow.
The Mitchell Sisters act broke up briefly when Nancy married and moved to Norfolk, Virginia (VA). That left Patsy and their combined career behind, though not perhaps willingly. It seems Patsy was willing to move, but her parents weren't comfortable with the idea since she was so young at the time. In Virginia Nancy discovered there were many places to sing.
Nancy went back to Rockford, IL and persuaded her parents to let Patsy to return with her to Virginia. Patsy stayed with Nancy and her husband until she got a job and a place of her own. The Mitchell Sisters began to sing and entertain audiences throughout the Norfolk, VA and Portsmouth, VA areas and even into North Carolina.
The Mitchell Sisters worked with the WCMS radio station in Norfolk, VA. WCMS had a live radio show every Sunday afternoon. The Mitchell Sisters were a part of that show which also included such acts as Milton Riley and Johnny Williams and their Rhythm Rangers band. The duo also appeared on Lucky Lon Backman's (WAVY) Tidewater Jamboree at a local theatre in Portsmouth, VA.
During the week the Mitchell Sisters played gigs that the radio station booked for them; sometimes they worked alone and sometimes with Milton Riley and Johnny Williams, Bobby Smith's band and with Tommy Riddle's band. One of the highlights of their career was a guest appearance on The Old Dominion Barn Dance airing over radio station WRVA in Richmond, VA.
One of the acts WCMS booked them with was the little known (at that time) Gene Vincent, of Be Bop A Lu La fame. The Mitchell Sisters were told that after WCMS got Gene Vincent's career off and running, that Patsy and Nancy would be next in line to record for Capitol Records. But around that same time, Patsy got married the duo broke up again before the record contract was consummated. WCMS was disappointed when the act broke up, but found that Nancy was quite capable as a solo act.
Nancy stayed in Virginia and worked with Tommy Riddle's band for a short time and then she went back to Illinois and eventually lost all contact with her friends in Virginia. Nancy started appearing again on The Rockford Hayloft Jamboree. Then she joined a band that was going to Quincy, IL to appear on a local show called The Possum Holler Opry along with Toby (Dick) Ellis. By that time, Nancy had remarried to the pedal steel guitar player in the group, Jim Moore.
Circia 1958, the Opry gang decided to go on a wagon train trip to California and actually carry mail there. They got a government contract to carry some mail and the postal service issued a special stamp. The Possum Holler gang had to take a first aid course before they left. Nancy was expecting her second child at the time and could not make the wagon trip.
Patsy passed away in October of 2003. As of 2004, Nancy was still singing.
