Charles J. Kelly

Charles J. Kelly, Lt. Col., USAF (ret.) AKA "Goodlookin'"

SHREVEPORT, LA -Memorial services for Charles J. Kelly will be held Wednesday September 6th at 2:30 PM in the auditorium at The Glen on 403 E. Flournoy Lucas Road with The Reverend Stephen Dyer of Broad-moor Presbyterian Church and Pastor George Winham officiating. There will be a reception immediately following to visit with the Kelly Family.

Born March 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, LA Charles was educated in Plain Dealing and at Louisiana Normal College in Natchitoches where he played on the undefeated football team of 1939 and first learned to fly. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kelly, as he was known to all of his friends, joined the U.S. Army-Air Corps and was sent to Columbus, MS to B-17-Flying Fortress Bomber school. From the UK he led over twenty-five attacks on vital Nazi sites in Europe. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Double Oak Leaf Clusters and the Air Medal and made the USAF his career. Returning from his tour of duty, he married Carolyn Mason of Enterprise, MS and started a family. He completed a B.S. in business, helped organize Nichols University, taught ROTC in New Braunfelds, TX and then re-entered the USAF in 1948, as a SAC pilot. Kelly retired from the USAF 1963 to become a realtor/broker and developer in Little Rock, AR. He started an ROTC program at Bolton High School in Alexandria, LA and later commanded the ROTC program at H.H. Arnold High School (DoDD School) in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 1977, he commuted from Alexandria to Shreveport , LA while developing Indian Hills Subdivision.

Kelly was an accomplished pilot, leather tooler, lapidarist, marksman, hunter, fisherman and golfer. Sunday drives were a favorite entertainment. A vivid memory of his was as a teenager, while out cutting firewood with a mule team and wagon, he came upon Bonnie and Clyde and two of their gang in a Ford sedan, stranded in a streambed which crossed a dirt road near Rocky Mount, La. Everyone in the car was well dressed and he wasn't so he hitched the car to the team and pulled it out of the water. Gratefully they offered to pay him for the help, but he refused. He remembered all the occupants of the car had machine guns in their laps.

Kelly was preceded in death by his parents Rufus and Bessie Kelly and by all of his siblings, Joe Herbert Kelly, James Kelly, Bessie Faye Harrison, Jenoda Booth and Lula Mae Winham and a nephew Charles H. Winham.

Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Carolyn Mason Kelly; son, Charles J. (Chuck) Kelly, Jr. and wife, Mary, of Huntington Beach, CA; daughter, Jo Kelly Edwards and husband, Richard of Birmingham, AL; daughter Alice Kelly Moore and husband Dick of Austin, TX; daughter Caroline Kelly Tait and husband Claude of Shreveport, LA. Also surviving are nine much loved grandchildren, Heidi Emerson, Kathy Stoddard, Sara Kelly, Katherine Strickland, Courtney Toporek, Kelly Edwards, Richard Moore, Bonney Simcik and Jennifer Cruz, and ten great-grandchildren: Kate and Jake Emerson, Kelly and William Stoddard, R. Jackson Strickland, Caitlin, Krista and Brenna Simcik, Caroline and Ethan Cruz. Also surviving are special nephews, George and Rufus Winham.

The Kelly Family wishes to express its gratitude to Rena´ Williams, Marie Sessum, Glenda Paige and Erica Hamilton at Village Health Care at the Glen and to Dr. Jinan Ghali, Dr. Ike Muslow, the LSU residents and the 6W nursing staff at Overton Brooks V. A. Medical Center for their compassionate care and support.

In lieu of flowers, contributions or memorials may be made to The 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB, The 92nd Bombardment Group Memorial Association or The Glen Retirement System.

You may share your condolences with the family online at www.boone fh.com.

Boone Funeral Home Bossier Chapel 742-5361