Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

A memorial service for Barbara A. Kelly, 82, Lawrence, will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Plymouth Congregational Church. Private inurnment will follow at Pioneer Cemetery on the West Campus of Kansas University.
She died Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, in Lawrence.
She was born Sept. 20, 1927, in Bennett, Neb., the daughter of Vaclav and Mary F. Kuncl Vesely.
She attended the University of Nebraska and graduated with a degree in elementary music and a master’s degree in education from KU. She was an elementary music educator in public schools in Lincoln and McCook, Neb.; Gunnison, Colo.; and Lawrence public schools. In the Lawrence public schools, she served as an elementary instrumental, strings and vocal music teacher.
Mrs. Kelly was well known in Lawrence for her strong local volunteerism, as a leader in the nationally recognized Plymouth Congregational Church Hand Bell Choirs and manager for the Lawrence City Band.
She was active in many musical organizations: Mu Phi Epsilon, Music Educators National Conference, Kansas Music Educators, Lawrence Music Club, Guild of English Hand Bell Ringers, Kansas Orff Society, and American String Teachers Association.
She received the Service to Mankind Award in 1998 from the Lawrence Sertoma Club and the Sunflower Award from the Kansas Association of Retired School Personnel. She was also a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, a women-in-education society, and Czech-Slovak Club.
She married William “Bill” L. Kelly on Dec. 21, 1947, in Crete, Neb. He died Nov. 3, 1998.
She was also preceded in death by an infant daughter, Karen; a sister, Marion Padboy; a brother, Francis Vesely; and a niece, Mary Claire Rozanek.
Survivors include a son, Bill and wife Carolyn, Lawrence; three daughters, Kathy Scannell and husband Jeff, Topeka, Mary Jo Shipley and husband Dan, Olathe, and Susan Bracciano and husband Mike, St. Joseph, Mo.; 13 grandchildren, Cortney, William II and Joe Kelly, Travis, Jeremy and Kelly Scannell, Matthew, Paul, and Joel Shipley, and Nicholas, Michael, Patrick and Anna Bracciano.
The family will greet friends from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
The family suggests memorials to Douglas County Community Foundation, sent in care of the mortuary. The memorial monies will be divided among Barbara’s interests of education, music therapy, hand bell choirs and local community service.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain.com, subject: Kelly.