Andel Mickins, an educator who spent 40 years in Miami-Dade County schools, was ``first lady'' of her husband's Memorial Temple Baptist Church and was a Florida Memorial University trustee, died Sept. 27. She was 85.

A grande dame of Miami's black community, Mickins had been afflicted with multiple myeloma and Alzheimer's disease, according to her sister, Theatrice Patterson of Atlanta. Her husband, the Rev. Isaac Mickins -- a successful builder -- founded his church in 1968 in Miami Gardens, where the couple lived. He died in 1993.

GROUP LEADER

A born leader, Andel Mickins was president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Florida East Coast Missionary Baptist Association, the Gamma Zeta Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and the International Association of Ministers' Wives and Ministers' Widows Hall of Fame.

A tall, proper woman, she coached debutantes in manners -- armed with Emily Post's rules. Known for her elaborate hats, she was ``Mrs. Mickins'' to nearly everyone -- ``the epitome of finer womanhood,'' said son Isaac Mickins II, also a builder.

``She represented elegance and class. But more than that, she was a loving mother and grandmother.''

`FINISHING TOUCH'

During a 1990 interfaith panel discussion of church attire, Mickins said: ``My hat, to me, simply is the finishing touch to my look. It is a part of my wardrobe, just as my gloves are.

``And as long as I am not dressing for vain glory, I believe I am in order and good taste.''

Andel Watkins met Isaac Mickins in 1951 at an NAACP convention in Boston. She led a South Carolina chapter; he led the Miami-Dade County chapter.

After a July 1952 wedding, they settled in Miami.

``When he married her, my dad asked one thing of her,'' son Isaac said: ``Always be ready to answer the door. So even when she was home, she was well-dressed and had on lipstick.''

The elder Isaac Mickins became pastor of Mount Olivette Baptist Church in Overtown, and his wife -- who had been teaching in South Carolina -- joined the Holmes Elementary faculty.

She went on to become assistant principal at Liberty City Elementary and principal at R.R. Moton Elementary in Perrine before wrapping up her career as Rainbow Park Elementary's principal.

After retiring in 1983, she ran the early childhood education program at Memorial Temple. And she was always ready to help her husband.

``Many times, members wish to contact the pastor and he is not available,'' she once told The Miami Herald. ``At such times, they often share their problems with me.''

She was born Andel Anafrances Watkins in the town of Central, S.C., the third of Estelle and Earnest Watkins' four children. They grew up on a 98-acre farm that had been in the family at least as far back as her grandparents' day, her sister said.

CHICKENS AND COWS

Their parents ``raised everything that you could raise and sell -- chickens, cows -- and that's how we went to college,'' said Patterson, a retired teacher eight years younger than her sister.

``We lived near Wesleyan Methodist College, and my mother washed and ironed for the teachers. That instilled in her to want to send us to school. She wanted her children to be like those teachers.''

Mickins graduated first in her class from Anderson County High School in Pendleton, S.C., then earned a bachelor's degree from Tuskeegee University and a master's degree from Columbia University. She did postgraduate work at Iowa State University and the University of Miami.

`AN EXAMPLE'

Susie Robinson, a one-time Rainbow Park teacher and Mickins' Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister, called her ``a teacher who lived to be an example to the children she taught and to all who knew her. . . . She made you feel like wanting to come to work.''

In 1990, Isaac Mickins suffered a massive heart attack and spent the rest of his life in a coma. His wife never missed a day at his side, her sister said.

After he died, she threw herself into community work, but when her sister's husband died, ``she came to Atlanta with a one-way ticket,'' Patterson said.

Mickins memorialized her husband through a donation of his papers to the Florida Memorial University Library, known as the Reverend Isaac Clarence Mickins Theological, Pastoral and Sermonic Research Collection.

Andel Mickins outlived two brothers. She is survived by her son and sister. A funeral was held.