Willie Kelly

Willie (Bill) K. Kelly - first grade school teacher in the Bristol, Virginia school system for forty years, died in the one-hundred first year of her life on Wednesday, December 29th in Roanoke, Virginia. She was a resident of the Brandon Oaks Lutheran Home. Bill Kelly, the daughter of John Peck Kelly and Lura Woodyard Kelly, was born in Sugar Run, Virginia near Pearisburg, on November 25th, 1904. She enjoyed a wonderful childhood growing up in Smith and Bland Counties. She graduated from Marion College Academy in 1921. She attended Radford College Normal School and received her teaching certificate in 1923, returning to Radford College to earn her B.S. in 1939. Her first teaching position was in Appalachia, Virginia at the age of nineteen, in 1923. In 1926 she accepted a position in Bluefield, Virginia (Graham) teaching there until 1930, when she moved to Bristol. In Bristol, she taught until her retirement in 1969. Hers was always the first grade and generations of young Virginians first realized the miracle of reading in her classroom. Always gentle, always kind, she was often visited by former students, who called her "the teacher they would never forget". Her classroom stories were endless, a favorite concerning an exchange of correspondence she had with a parent who had been asked to supply a birth certificate for his son. The father noted that he "Didn't know nothin' about no birth certificate, but any durn fool could plainly see that Johnny was a well-born child." Miss Kelly is survived by many nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces, and cousins, including Virginia Echols-Dixon of Winterville, Georgia, James Kelly of Williamsburg, Virginia, Jean Echols of Roanoke, Virginia, and Jane Kelly-Daniel of Lexington, Virginia. A graveside-service will be held on Friday, at 11 a.m. in Round Hill Cemetery, Marion, Virginia. The Reverand Richard D. Mullan of Saint Luke's Methodist Church, Bristol, will officiate. Seaver-Brown Funeral Service and Crematory of Marion is entrusted with all arrangements, and the family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to Saint Luke's United Methodist Church, 105 North Street, Bristol, Virginia, 24201. Expressions of sympathy may be made to the family at www.seaverbrown.com.