Telegraph - 18 Apr 1998 - Evelyn Mitchell, who has died aged 88, was a much-respected figure in Kenya; Jomo Kenyatta would always greet her in his native Kikuyu. She was born Evelyn McDonell on July 1 1909 at Limuru, north of Nairobi. Her father was one of the first tea planters in East Africa. Evelyn spent her early years among the Kikuyu learning to speak Kikuyu and Swahili. So that she and her sisters could go to school their father founded a girls' school at Limuru. Evelyn completed her schooling at St. Swithun's, Winchester, where she excelled at games. Back in Africa, she became a housekeeper at Government House, Nairobi and later in Dar-es-Salaam and then Zomba, the capital of Nyasaland (now Malawi). On returning to Kenya, she married Lewis Mitchell, of the Kenyan Police, and in the 1960s opened her father's farm as a guest house for service personnel from Aden. In 1970 she opened it to tourists as a typical early settler establishment. Former American President Jimmy Carter was one of the many visitors she entertained there with stories of early colonial days. Evelyn Mitchell and her husband, who predeceased her, had a son and 2 daughters, all of whom still live on the farm.