Nancy Jean Kelly

1943 - 2025

Nancy Jean Kelly
05/12/1943 - 11/06/2025
Nancy Jean Kelly departed her embodiment on Thursday, 6 November at her home in Detroit, MI. She is survived by her daughter, Erin Kelly, son-in-law, Sean Seabright Jackson, her grandchildren Cadence Kelly-Jackson (8), Mackenzie Kelly-Jackson (3), and Quinn Kelly-Jackson (3), and her beloved cat, Jet.

Nancy was born in North Bend, Oregon, to her fireball of a mother and rabble-rousing father, Yvonne and Roger Duncan. She was an older sister to Joel Travis Duncan. The Duncan clan was unified in its spirit of adventure, love of cats, appreciation for the natural world, and support for the democratic party.

Nancy attended the University of Oregon, where, despite being blind in one eye and a self-proclaimed, lifelong klutz, she excelled at tennis. In the summer of 1965, her late brother Joel famously stole a school bus and drove them both south to San Francisco, where Nancy took up residence in Haight-Ashbury.

In the early 1970s, Nancy moved to New York, where she lived in a brownstone on the Upper East Side, and took her first trip to the Caribbean. She returned to Oregon, eventually settling in Eugene with her husband, Gerald Kelly, where she had her daughter, Erin. In the early 1980s, Nancy migrated south, for opportunity and for sunshine, somewhat accidentally moving to Austin, Texas, when it was still a sleepy college town.

Nancy loved to cook and garden, and took excellent care of her own health. She spent her life taking care of others, even when she herself needed care. Nothing sparked her imagination and unique way of seeing like a struggling plant or a person who perhaps hadn't been fully acknowledged or embraced by society.

Nancy was a South Austinite through and through. Her first breakfast taco came from Guerros when it was still on Oltorf. She learned to race walk on the shores of Town Lake. She was a long-time member of Alcoholics Anonymous Bouldin Creek, and worked for fifteen years at the HEB on Brodie Lane. Nothing made her yelp like those giant flying roaches they only seem to have in Texas in the spring.

Nancy was raised outside the church, but she served others and built community wherever she went. One of Nancy's gifts is knowing that service and healing can continue across a lifespan. If you would like to honor Nancy's life of love and service, please consider a donation in her honor to the Zilker Botanical Garden.