Photo by Miranda Pederson/Daily News Bowling Green police officers Jamie Peerce (left) and Tim Wilson stand at parade rest Wednesday as the funeral procession for A. Brooks Mitchell II arrives at Fairview Cemetery.

Brooks Mitchell spoke with his friend Charles English Sr. just an hour before his fatal crash Saturday, English told the several hundred mourners assembled at First Baptist Church for Mitchell’s funeral Wednesday.

&#8220Charlie, I had the best week of my life last week,” English recalled him saying.

Mitchell’s daughter, Rachel, was newly married, his other daughter, Caroline, had a new job, the family was all together, and he and his wife, Sharlene, were very happy.

&#8220I am so fortunate,” Mitchell told English.

An hour later, during a sunny morning jaunt through Logan County to visit a friend, Alton Brooks Mitchell II, 51, was gone. A truck struck and killed him and fellow rider Cornelius Martin and seriously injured their friend Bill Leachman. The party’s fourth motorcyclist, Lloyd Ferguson, was shaken but uninjured.

Pictures and mementos of Mitchell were placed around the lobby of First Baptist Church, near his wooden coffin draped in red roses and white lilies.

English told the relatives, friends, business associates and community leaders who gathered to pay tribute to Mitchell, a prominent banker and driving force behind many civic projects, that upon parting, Mitchell always told him, &#8220You don’t know how much I appreciate you.”

&#8220Brooks, I and others regret waiting ’til this day to tell you how much we appreciate you,” English said.

Many of those who have spoken about Mitchell since his death have called him their best friend. Some of them told tales of Mitchell’s life.

Sharlene Mitchell asked her husband’s longtime friend and business associate, Glenn Leveridge, president of Chase Bank in Lexington, to share stories about Mitchell’s sense of humor.

&#8220Bear with me. It’ll be difficult, but I think I can do it,” Leveridge said. But he often had to fight back tears between chuckles.

Leveridge hired Mitchell into the banking industry, and spent many hours traveling with him, talking and joking most of the time.

&#8220We’d laugh so much we’d cry, and sometimes we’d cry so much we’d laugh,” he said.

Leveridge recalled Mitchell’s love for Elvis, white shoes, the Republican Party and anything to do with the space shuttle.

Bill Jackson, owner of Jackson’s Orchard, said he had too many good stories to tell about Mitchell. He settled for one describing his cheerful humility: Mitchell volunteered to drive Jackson’s peach truck to Brownsville farmer’s market, and showed up clad in bib overalls, a plaid shirt and straw hat, a far cry from his usual natty banker’s suit.

But the market was closed for the Fourth of July. Unperturbed, Mitchell parked the truck on Main Street, set up a lawn chair, and began selling peaches to all passersby. He sold the whole load, smilingly telling those who knew him professionally that the banking business was tough, so he had to make money any way he could, Jackson said.

A few months ago Mitchell’s lifelong friend Jeff Houchins, who spent childhood years playing in the sandbox with his neighbor Mitchell in Chalybeate Springs, suffered some heart problems. Mitchell bluffed his way into The Medical Center after visiting hours to talk to him, greeting him with his customary &#8220How you doing, Sport?” Houchins said.

Mitchell said that both of them should consider slowing down, and asked Houchins what he planned to do when he got out of the hospital. Houchins replied that he wanted to go back home to Chalybeate Springs and open a drive-through barbecue shack.

&#8220I want to be your partner, because Sharlene and I are going to move back to Chalybeate,” Houchins quoted Mitchell. &#8220You can do the cooking, I’ll take care of the selling – and Sharlene can cut the wood.”

Mitchell’s daughters wanted to speak at the service, but said they could find no words of their own. So they read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, on love; and Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, on the timing of life.

On behalf of Mitchell’s family, the Rev. Jerry Patton thanked the Bowling Green and Brownsville communities for their support.

Mitchell was always proud of his Edmonson County roots, and that down-home touch aided his natural ability and impulse to make friends with everyone he met, Patton said.

Many of those friends accompanied Mitchell to Fairview Cemetery, filing past his grave in silent farewell.

He lived near the cemetery and enjoyed walking there with his dog, and so would have liked the site of his resting place, Patton said.

Mitchell was a son of the late Alton Brooks &#8220A.B.” Mitchell, and Eleanor Mitchell, who survives. Survivors also include his wife, Sharlene Mitchell; two daughters, Rachel Mitchell Ferguson of Pensacola, Fla., and Elizabeth Caroline Mitchell of Nashville; and a sister, Jane Mitchell Weston of San Francisco.

He was a 1973 graduate of Edmonson County High School, a 1977 graduate of Murray State University, and graduate of several professional banking programs.

His professional life began as a weatherman at WBKO-13 in Bowling Green and grew to include banking positions in Nashville, Lexington and Birmingham. In 1991, he became president and CEO of Kentucky Trust Bank, a position he held for many years. In 2005, he assumed the positions of president and CEO of Hancock County Bank and Trust.

Other accomplishments include president of the Community Bankers Association of Kentucky; director of the Kentucky Bankers Association; director of Western Kentucky University Library Board; trustee at Georgetown College; and most recently, member of the Millennium Literary Club and chairman of the Bowling Green Downtown Redevelopment Authority.

– Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to the A.B. and Brooks Mitchell Scholarship Fund, c/o Bank of Edmonson County, P.O. Box 99, Brownsville, KY 42210.