Vernon Kelly

KELLY, GJEFLE, PETERSON, KIRKEBY, HANSMEIER, DILLMAN, TESLOW, PROMNITZ, BULMAN, SMITH, CAROLAN, THORNTON, LIVINGOOD

Posted By: Diana Henry Diedrich (email)
Date: 1/5/2007 at 15:58:36

Iowan, 28, Drowns Fixing Motorboat

Lansing – Vernon Kelly, 28, of Rossville drowned about 6 p.m., Sunday in the Mississippi river.
Authorities said Kelly was with his wife in a motorboat. He was attempting to fix a sheared pin on the propeller when he fell in the water.
The accident happened on the Wisconsin side of the river, across from Lansing. Rossville is located in Allamakee county.
Survivors include his wife and 3 children.

Cedar Rapids Gazette; 11 May 1959
Transcribed by Diana Henry Diedrich
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Added by Connie Ellis (Kelly family Researcher)
6/13/2011:

Waukon, Iowa newspaper Tuesday, May 12, 1959 Number 20

MISSISSIPPI CLAIMS LIFE LAST SUNDAY AFTERNOON, MOTHER'S DAY

Clinton Vernon Kelly, age 26, was this season's first victim of a Mississippi River accident when he slipped from a boat and disappeared into Stevens slough waters, located east of the main channel, 100 yards south of the Lansing bridge Sunday afternoon, May 10, 1959. Kelly was attempting to repair a sheared pin on the motor of a 14-foot aluminum boat he was using Sunday, when he slipped into the water and drowned immediately. His wife, Frances, age 24, his brother-in-law Walter Dillman, age 36, and his wife, of Des Moines, Iowa and Carlton Teslow, from Decorah, Iowa were also aboard the boat and witnessed the accident. One of the men in the boat with Mr. Kelly jumped in to try to save him but was forced by rough waters to give up.

The accident occurred in Wisconsin waters across from Lansing, Iowa. The Lansing fire siren was sounded at 5:45 p.m. to call river rescue workers with a resuscitator. They responded quickly and at 6:40 Charles Smith recovered Kelly's body in 10 feet of water about the spot where he went down. The drowning was the first in the Lansing area in about two years. The Crawford County sheriff from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin investigated.

Clinton Vernon Kelly was born in Allamakee County, Iowa May 6, 1933, son of Clinton L. and Gusta (Gjefle) Kelly. He had resided in Allamakee County all his life. He was educated in the local schools and served in the armed forces. He was married June 12, 1954 to Frances Peterson at the Little Brown Church at Nashua, Iowa. To them were born three little girls. Mr. Kelly was employed at the packing plant in Postville, Iowa.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 13 from Martin Brothers Funeral Home in Waukon, Iowa and at 2:p.m. at the Rossville Presbyterian Church of which Mr. Kelly was a member. The Rev. Robert Reynolds will officiate at the funeral and burial will be in the Oakland Cemetery in Waukon, Iowa. Pallbearers will be Robert Promnitz, Robert Bulman, Virgil Smith, Robert Carolan, Carl Thornton, and Leslie Livingood.

He is survived by his wife, Frances, three small children, twins, Jeannette and Annette, age 3, and Dawn Rae, 1 year old; his parents Clinton and Gusta Kelly of rural Rossville,Iowa; 2 sisters, Geraldine (Mrs. Harlan) Kirkeby of Lewiston, Minnesota, and Nona (Mrs. Roger) Hansmeier of Waukon, Iowa.