Elizabeth A Kelly

Elizabeth “Betty” Kelly, passed from life on a Sunday evening in Ogden Utah attended by her Granddaughter and Husband after a long battle with crippling infirmity. She exemplified the traits of strength, grace, and good humor to the very end.

Betty grew up in a way few today would recognize. At the age of nine she survived being hit by an automobile. She chased rattle snakes with her older brother in the West Texas desert, learned to swim with her brothers in a mining pit, and remembered living in a home with no indoor plumbing on a working dairy farm run by her first-generation immigrant Grandparents. With stubborn independence she vowed to become a Nurse and joined the US Army to see her ambition fulfilled. She lived and married on Okinawa, Japan and had her two sons there. In 1975 she made her home in Fairfax Virginia and resided there for 47 years. Along the way she did many mission trips on behalf of Pender United Methodist Church to Paraguay and Peru to provide medical assistance to the people there. She completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Maryland Far East Extension and achieved her Registered Nurse Accreditation from Northern Virginia Community College after arriving in Viriginia. She employed her skills working for the US Army Reserve at Walter Reed Hospital, Northern Virginia Doctor’s Hospital, and Manor Care Nursing Home. In 1998 she formally retired from the Army with the rank of Sergeant First Class. Later in life she worked with her husband for the Fairfax County Election office as a poll worker and doing voter registration. She donated countless hours of time, significant portions of her paychecks, and literally gallons of her blood to causes she thought were worthwhile or simply where she saw a need.

Betty developed early loves for flower arranging, baking, and cake decorating, and she was no stranger to the lapidary shops on base in Okinawa and Korea. She loved using her hands to make things. She cheerfully tackled the tasks of motherhood, housekeeper, and independent wage earner, sometimes in spite of those she labored for. She remained faithful in service to God, centering her life around her religious education and the duties it required of her.

In later years Arthritis and Lupus took her dexterity, her physical strength, and eventually her ability to walk but nothing could take her spirit. When she couldn’t walk unaided, she used a cane. When the cane wasn’t enough, she used a walker. When the walker no longer sufficed, she used a power chair. She went alone to retrieve books from the library, worked jigsaw puzzles in the assisted living common area, and confounded the physical therapists by insisting on doing everything possible to regain her ability to walk. In the end, her desire for independence was pitted against her will to live. Determined that her body could no longer sustain a meaningful life that wasn’t a burden to her loved ones, she decided that 84 years was enough. With a host of conditions that have felled others at much younger ages, she lived half again as long on hospice as anyone expected her to, seeing her 85th birthday.

Betty is survived by her husband, Lawrence “Larry” Kelly, sons Donald (Dawn) and Robert (Genecy), grandchildren Nicholas, Serra, Taryn, Gabriella, and Alaina. She has two great grandchildren, Alice and Jameson. She is preceded in death by her parents and older brother.

A useful measure for the value of a life is the weight of its touch for the better on the lives of others. By that measure Betty made her life a precious elixir brewed in great vats which she shared widely and freely with those most in need. She sought neither glory nor recognition. She just tried to make a difference.

Funeral Services will be held at 2:00 PM on November 7th at Earthman Resthaven Funeral Home and Cemetery in Houston Texas followed by internment next to her parents. A viewing will commence one hour before the service. Flowers may be addressed to the Funeral Home or in leu of flowers please consider a donation to Disabled American Veterans (www.dav.org) or the American Heart Association (www.heart.org)

A memorial service will be planned for a later date in Fairfax VA for Elizabeth’s many friends in that area.