Marian Kelley

Marian Kelley

June 2, 2025

Ending a long life of love and service, Marian Kelley passed away at Regent Court Memory Care in Corvallis, Oregon, on June 2nd 2025, just weeks after enjoying a lively 99th birthday party.

Marian was born to the Rev. Dr. Webster Stover and Marian Stover (formerly Marian Allen) in Pennsylvania on May 14, 1926. Her father's peripatetic career(s) took the family to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Connecticut, twice, first Greenwich and then New Haven, where her father took her to see FDR as he campaigned for president in 1936. They finally settled in Rye NY. Marian attended Rye High School where she excelled in her studies and was quite popular. The lucky guy was John P. ("Jack") Kelley, who graduated early to join the Navy. The Navy also saw his potential and sent him to college instead of the Pacific. When he ended up at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, she followed him to Russell Sage College, a few blocks away. They married in 1948, and lived briefly in Worchester MA, where Jack worked for General Electric. When he was transferred to Milwaukee WI they drove there in their most ridiculous wedding present, a brand new Pontiac convertible. Marian refused to leave her ironing board behind so they drove the whole way with the top down.

Marian and Jack then lived in Wauwatosa WI and had three children in an old fashioned neighborhood where the children roamed free. In the summers she would often gather a random carload in the afternoon and take them to the beach. In 1966 Jack had moved up at GE to the point where he was more an administrator than an engineer, so he quit and the family moved to Corvallis where Jack took a position at OSU.

In Corvallis Marian was a mother and homemaker. She loved volunteering, tending her garden and roses, baking cookies, going on outings (especially to the Coast) and picking strawberries. She would again often gather groups of friends to go strawberry picking, continuing to enjoy being the neighborhood chauffeur. In over 75 years of driving she never had so much as a parking ticket.

Sadly, Jack died in 1982, well before his time. But Marian was blessed through her long widowhood with an extensive network of women friends, made through her volunteer activities at her children's schools (some of her Bluebirds are now grandmothers), the OSU Folk Club Thrift Shop, the Corvallis Public Library, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, and elsewhere. She particularly enjoyed the sisterhood of the "Dawn Patrol" walking group, of which she was a founding member in the early 1970's. Back then the idea of ladies getting up early to "jog" before getting kids off to school or husbands (and often themselves) off to work was so strange that there was an article in the Gazette-Times on March 30, 1972. With a picture! She continued walking into her 90's with her best friend, fellow nonagenarian Anne Swanson.

Marian was predeceased by her beloved husband Jack, her parents, and her younger sister Frances. She is survived by sons Edwin Kelley of Corvallis, John (also "Jack") Kelley (Keith Dorwick) of Port Angeles WA, and daughter Linda Kelley (Ralph Becker-Szendy) and grandson John Becker, all of Los Gatos, CA.

Remembrance gifts may be made to the Mother's March of Dimes, to which Marian was a regular donor since 1956, or the charity of your choice.

The family wishes to thank Marian's longtime physician, Dr. Michael Chen, and the brilliant, caring staff of Regent Court Memory Care.

Marian loved picnics. In lieu of a memorial service, a Memorial Picnic will be scheduled for sometime this summer. Details to follow.

At her specific request, Marian's ashes will be placed in Lake Mohawksin, Tomahawk WI, at a particular spot off the shore of Jack's family summer home there. This is where Marian placed Jack's ashes. It is where he caught his one and only muskie.