Donna Jean Kelly

1935 - 2011

DONNA JEAN KELLY

Born 12/2/1935 - Died 12/8/2011

Donna Jean Kelly, a pioneering woman of the twentieth century, died in the early hours of Thursday morning, December 8, 2011 at the age of 76. For the previous five years she had been fighting and surviving metastatic breast cancer, but she finally succumbed to congestive heart failure brought on by complications from the cancer and medical treatment. She passed peacefully in her sleep. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 2:00 PM in the Hall Bros. Corning Mortuary, 902 Fifth St., Corning, CA 96021 (Ph: 530-824-3792).

Donna Kelly, originally Donna Brown, was born in Battle Creek, Michigan to Warren P. and Mildred A. Brown during the latter years of the Great Depression. The family was poor and her beginnings were quite humble. Donna's father, a traveling salesman and barber, moved the family to the west coast when she was still a young girl. They lived for a while in Bremerton, Washington, then Stockton, California and San Pedro, California, and finally settled in San Jose, California, where she finished high school and married Ted W. Whittington. They had one son, David., but divorced a few years later.

Donna remained single for the next decade while she concentrated on her career as a bookkeeper and eventually became the equivalent of an accountant, although without any college education or degree. In the early 1970's Donna climbed to the top of her profession when she became the Controller for Hosmer Dorrence Corp., a global manufacturer of prosthetic devices, during a time when women were rarely promoted to management positions in business. She also worked for Convergent Technologies, Inc. programming and quality testing accounting software during the early days of the computer technology boom in Silicon Valley. Later, she went into business on her own as an accounting consultant for several businesses.

In 1972 Donna married John F. Kelly, a World War II veteran whom she had once worked for as a bookkeeper. John adopted Donna's son David and they all spent many happy years together, breeding Shetland Sheepdogs and operating a small horse ranch as hobbies while Donna worked in Silicon Valley and John managed a retail floor covering business. During the 1980's Donna and John also ran a significant mail order business out of their home. In 1987 John bought Donna her first Maltese puppy and that eventually changed Donna's life entirely. In 1989 John Kelly died and Donna remained his widow ever since.

After a long career in accounting and many decades in San Jose, Donna decided it was time for a change and a permanent break from the rat-race of the Bay Area. In 1990 she moved north to the open country of Corning, California and settled on a 10 acre ranch there. Beginning with her Maltese dog "Penny", whom she loved dearly, Donna then focused on the Maltese breed and breeding and showing Maltese dogs. She eventually bred and/or showed several Maltese American Champions and a couple of Maltese International Champions. In 1995 Donna's son David also moved to Corning and joined the kennel business. Since then, they developed a web site and began selling pet products online to compliment the Maltese breeding. Although she still had bookkeeping clients up to the end, from the time that Donna moved to Corning and up until her death, her entire life revolved mostly around the Maltese dogs and puppies that she loved so much.

Donna Kelly is survived by her son David Kelly, her granddaughter Sara Finlayson, her great granddaughter Aubrey Finlayson, her sister Carole Turner and her two brothers, Richard Brown and Troyce Brown. She will be dearly missed by all of the extended family and the friends and business associates she has left behind.

May she rest in peace.