[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 26, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING MRS. LOIS KELLY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 26, 2008

  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I had the privilege this past Saturday to 
attend the 100th birthday party for Mrs. Lois Kelly.
  Mrs. Kelly is a very special, even amazing, woman. She has the beauty 
and spirit of a woman 20 years younger. It is simply hard to believe 
she is 100.
  She is still very active, and I was told she recently bought a new 
Cadillac.
  The article below by Robert Booker, describes her much better than I 
ever could.
  Suffice it to say that through her work in education and her church 
and home, she has helped make this Nation a much better place.
  Lois Kelly is a great American, and I was very honored to join many 
others in her birthday celebration.
  I would like to encourage my colleagues and other readers of the 
Record to read the column by Mr. Booker, which ran in the February 26 
issue of the Knoxville News Sentinel.

                Lois Kilgore Kelly--A Century of Service

                         (By Robert J. Booker)

       Two years ago while moping around the house suffering from 
     one of those virus things, I got a delightful telephone call. 
     I had committed to participating in a program in the city but 
     had to cancel. Unfortunately, when the word of my illness 
     circulated, some people had me sicker than I really was.
       The phone call I got offering assistance came from a 98-
     year-old woman who wanted to make me some soup or go to the 
     drugstore for me. I had to chuckle at the thought of a woman 
     of that advanced age running an errand for me. But it was no 
     surprise that Lois Kilgore Kelly would make such an offer. I 
     had known her almost 60 years and was very familiar with her 
     community activities.
       She is one of the most outgoing, energetic, enthusiastic 
     people one can meet. She can be seen attending various 
     community functions, participating in organizational meetings 
     and offering sympathy at funerals. She seems to be everywhere 
     and drives her own car to get there.
       Seventy-nine years ago ``The Knoxville Negro,'' a book of 
     1929 published a chronicle of black life in Knoxville and 
     noted Mrs. Kelly in its youth section. Under the heading of 
     ``Who's Who Among the Negro Youth of Knoxville 1928-1929,'' 
     the publication said. ``The sons and daughters of today are 
     the fathers and mothers of tomorrow. This section offers a 
     view of prospective Negro leadership.''
       The 1929 sketch on her said, ``Lois Kilgore is preparing to 
     make a worthwhile contribution to the educational field. Her 
     ambitions are to become a good housewife and to teach. She 
     recites and is an active member of the Church of God.''
       I first met Mrs. Kelly in 1947 when I became a seventh-
     grade student at Green School. although she was not one of my 
     teachers, I saw her many times. It seems that she always had 
     a smile as she does today. I have never seen her when she is 
     not cheerful.
       She was born in Kingsport, Tenn., Feb. 23, 1908, and moved 
     to Knoxville at an early age and attended the Normal 
     Department at Knoxville College. She graduated from Knoxville 
     Colored High School in 1927 and received her bachelor of arts 
     degree in elementary education from Tennessee State 
     University in Nashville in 1931.
       Mrs. Kelly began her teaching career in 1932 in Covington, 
     Tenn., before returning to Knoxville in 1934 to teach at 
     Green School. The principal was Charles W. Cansler who had 
     been her principal when she was a student at Knoxville 
     Colored High School. She said it was an honor to have him 
     select her as one of his teachers. She taught there 22 years.
       She later taught at Cansler Elementary School named for 
     Cansler's mother. She also taught at Maynard and Lonsdale 
     elementary schools before retiring in 1994 after 60 years of 
     service in the school system.
       Early in her teaching career, she was visiting a friend in 
     Nashville and met Curtis Kelly, an up and coming young man 
     who, she said, ``swept her off her feet.'' They married in 
     1940 when he moved here to take a job with the Tennessee 
     Valley Authority. After his service in the Army he attended 
     Meharry Medical School of Dentistry and set up his practice 
     here in 1951.
       Mrs. Kelly and her husband became very active in the 
     Democratic Party and worked tirelessly to register people to 
     vote. They worked at the polls and helped to sponsor rallies 
     to bring out the vote. along the way, she took, time to be 
     active in the National Association for the Advancement of 
     Colored People and held various offices at Shiloh 
     Presbyterian Church, where she has been a member for 74 
     years. During the sit-in movements of the 1960s, she helped 
     to transport Knoxville College students to and from the 
     picket lines.
       On Feb. 23, Nu Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority held 
     a reception to honor Mrs. Kelly on her 100th birthday at 
     Mount Zion Baptist Church. Hundreds of friends and well-
     wishers turned out for the occasion. She has been a member of 
     that sorority for 74 years and has served as financial 
     secretary, treasurer and undergraduate adviser she is well 
     know throughout the sorority's South Central Reigon.
       Bonita Gillespie, Nu Zeta chapter president and close 
     friend of the honoree, says when Mrs. Kelly is asked to 
     describe her long life, she responds, ``I just lived.'' 
     Gillespie says that, despite Mrs. Kelly's age, ``She still 
     drives her own car, shops for groceries, goes to the mall, 
     attends aerobics at the O'Conner Senior Center, watches her 
     favorite soap operas, plays bridge at every opportunity, and 
     does whatever else she decides to do. She is glued to the TV 
     set when Tiger Woods plays in a golfmatch.''
       Some of those other things are to pick up friends to 
     chauffeur them to activities and to call those not feeling 
     well to see if they need her to run an errand.




                          ____________________