We were sad to get the news of the death on April 23, 2017, of Mikell Beckley. A former member of the Coalition board, Mikell was a strong advocate for Mount Independence. She worked closely with Louise Ransom and helped raise money to improve the Mount.
If you knew Mikell and would like to share any stories about her, please feel free to leave comments.
You can read Mikell’s obituary here.
Mount Independence Coalition 
I only met Mikell once and just briefly, but I had the chance to correspond with her several times, and I know she was a passionate supporter of Mount Independence. I wish I had had the chance to know her better.
Mikell was such a vibrant member of the Mount Independence Coalition board, and was so enthusiastic about Mount Independence. She was a volunteer for the archaeology field schools at the Mount in the late 1980s, and helped with the first spring archaeology walkovers after retirement. She was the Coalition’s chief grant writer, and helped procure funding for the talking heads sculptures, educational efforts, and much more. When I started the job as site administrator she was very encouraging to me. Once we had dinner together somewhere and she provided a lot of background, advice, and good will. She had a great sense of humor also, and had a wonderful laugh.