Mary Mitchell Arthur loved to be in the mix. She spent nearly 30 years processing teletype orders for Downtown traders as they frantically bought and sold stocks. In her final years, she insisted on having her wheelchair parked at the busiest place in her nursing home, between the rooms, the activity center and dining room, where she'd often comment to residents and staffers as they strolled past.

She was strong-willed, cheerful and generous to a fault, said her daughter, Lynne Arthur Rackley of Emsworth. Given her humble beginnings, Mrs. Arthur never personally invested in the stock market but, her daughter said, "She was really proud of the job she was counted on to do every day. She really loved the thrill of it.

"She was a strong enough person that she was able to keep things in order and minimize the chaos when the orders came flying in. When the salesmen were disorderly, she would keep them in line."

Mrs. Arthur died of natural causes Wednesday at the age of 98. She lived at the Reformed Presbyterian Home in Perry South.

Her birth name was Mary Bobrowicz. When she was 3 years old, her mother died and her father, a coal miner who had emigrated from Lithuania, left her and two older siblings at the Holy Family Institute in Emsworth. Her siblings got adopted, but Mary grew up with the nuns, and always said she was well cared for.

At the age of about 20, she befriended a woman named Mae Mitchell. The Mitchell family in Bellevue adopted her and she took their last name.

As a teenager, she began studying at Pennsylvania College for Women, which later became Chatham University. But she couldn't afford to continue. Instead she got secretarial work at U.S. Steel, which would prepare her for her future job in stocks.

She fell in love with William Howard Arthur, but they held off getting married until he returned from two years of Army service as an enlisted man in Germany in 1946. He became a salesman and later a mail carrier.

When their daughter Lynne was in fourth grade, Mrs. Arthur decided she wanted to go back to work. She'd get dressed every day in perfectly coordinated outfits, high heels, with a hat and white gloves, and take the bus from Emsworth to her job at Hemphill, Noyes & Co., which became Hornblower & Weeks and merged with Shearson Hayden Stone, later Shearson-American Express, in the Oliver Building.

"It was a high-pressure, technical kind of job. She loved it. She would really see the doom and gloom of it ... She would really be thrilled by the high volume. She liked being busy," said her daughter. She took orders from about 25 traders, who in the early days were all men, and they said they loved having her at the controls.

She also collected French provincial antiques and furniture, volunteered at Suburban General Hospital in Bellevue and loved vacationing with her family at Haliburton Highlands in Canada.

She retired in her 70s and moved to the Reformed Presbyterian Home about seven years ago when her health began to decline.

But her cheerful demeanor and curiosity about others never waned, said Mary Balok, director of social services at the home.

"She had a great sense of humor and was very strong-willed. She knew what she wanted and she usually got it. She had a special spot she liked to sit at the nursing home. She liked to watch the traffic go by, watch people come and go and kept track of staff. At bingo games, she sat by the caller to make sure they called the right letters ... She was a delightful lady."

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a grandson.

A funeral service will be held today at 10 a.m. at Orion C. Pinkerton Funeral Home, 1014 California Ave., Avalon, followed by entombment in Allegheny County Memorial Park. Donations can be made to the Reformed Presbyterian Home, 2344 Perrysville Ave., Pittsburgh 15214.