James Alvin and Wilma Elizabeth Blythe Kelly

KELLY, BLYTHE, ALLERDICE, MORRISON, RIZOR

Posted By: Susan Kelly Templin (email)
Date: 3/1/2009 at 23:11:01

This article was written by me for publication in the Albia Newspaper and for inclusion in a book of biographies honoring residents of Albia and their volunteer service to the community.

James Alvin Kelly and Wilma Elizabeth Blythe Kelly, were married in Mystic, IA, on May 4, 1946. Brfore her marriage, my mother had been living with her parents, her maternal grandmother, and her small son and working as a bookkeeper for her father's welding business.
My father served in the United States Army during WWII. He achieved the rank of Master Sergeant, Tank Corp Instructor. While being shipped to the South Pacific, he was injured by a runaway tank (as a youngster, I wasn't sure why the tank would run away). His left leg was crushed in the accident. He was sent to an Army Hospital in Denver where surgery,including bone transplants, repaired much of the damage. His leg bones were bolted together and wrapped in stainless steel mesh that resembled chicken wire. During his recovery in Denver, General George Patton presented him with a Purple Heart. Daddy said that he had told his doctors that the large body cast he was wearing was crooked. After the presentation of the medal, he asked General Patton if he thought the cast was straight. Within the hour, the crooked cast was removed and a new straight one had been put in its place. He was later moved to a military hospital at Clinton, IA. Daddy always liked to watch movies about the General, especially "Patton." He credited General Patton with his ability to walk after his 23 months in a body cast.
Before enlisting in the Army, and even as a small boy, my father worked in Bittenger's Dry Goods on Main Street in Mystic. He used to tell about working for seven to seven for 25 cents a day, six days a week. Once he told about a"safe house" up on the Christian Church Hill in Mystic that was owned by Al Capone and how sometimes he would make store deliveries or pick up packages from the train to be delivered to the house. He said that he always liked to make those deliveries because the housekeeper gave him a good tip. One time he got a crisp new $5 bill. I've asked a few others about the Capone story. It seems to be based on fact. Mystic was, back then, a thriving mining community on the main rail line from Chicago. It was incredibly easy for associates of the famous gangster to catch a train to houses located in small towns throughout the midwest.
Another of his stories was about meeting Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, when he came to Mystic to purchase and train his famous horse Trigger, at a stable not far from my dad's boyhood home.
My dad was quite a basketball star at Mystic High School. After graduation he did some coaching and then worked for the traveling company of the Harlem Globe Trotters on their Midwest schedule. Years later, I think about the time I was in Jr. High School, the Trotters did several television specials. He talked about being the referee who bore the brunt of most of Goose Tatum's jokes on the court, like the ball fastened to the end of a huge rubber band and the bucket that sometimes was filled with water instead of shredded paper. He also talked about traveling around the country in the dead of winter in Model A's and being stranded in the middle of nowhere by sudden snow storms (no weather radio or up-to-the-minute forecasts back then). More than once I watched him spin basketballs on the end of the middle fingers of both hands.
In 1946, my folks purchased three lots and a tiny cement-block house at 235 North Tenth Street on the site of a park built by the WPA and they started Kelly Electric, an electrical contracting business. He worked throughout the county to bring electricity to homes and businesses. Over the years he did electrical work for almost every family and every business in Monroe County and many other areas in Iowa. He worked with the Della Vedova Brothers to build the original HyVee Stores, did the electrical work for the Albia School District, the Library, the Kendall Place, Chamberlain Manufacturing, Trophy Glove, the Super Value Store, Goode's Feed Stores and Elevators, the Albia Manor, all of the area churches and banks, and most of the stores on the square, as well as the City of Albia. He converted many houses in Albia from gas to electricity, including Bill Derby's historic home just east of the Albia square, and also wired many of the new homes built in the area over the thirty plus years that he was in business.
On the side, he built their tiny house into a five-bedroom home for his family, served on the second response volunteer fire department, worked with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, caught his share of fish in most of the farmponds and lakes in the county, and raised golden retriever puppies that were sold to dog fanciers around the world.
In the meantime, my mother was busy raising 6 children to be responsible, caring adults. She had a leading roll in the Rebekah Lodge, was PTA President, room mother, band mothers president, National Secretary of the Retarded Children's Association, artist, friend, and mother confessor to us all. She was a fabulous cook and baker. Going to school to become a licensed baker, she baked incredible wedding and special occasions cakes for community members for several years. She was Girl Scout leader, CubScout leader, and volunteer at the Monroe County Hospital, the Albia Library, and several other organizations in the area. One of her proudest accomplishments, together with my dad and a few others in the community, was her instrumental role in starting the organization that is now the adult center for the handicapped citizens in Albia called Ragtime Industries. In the '60s she was a cook at the Albia Manor and later worked with John and Johanne Weir at the Montgomery Wards Catalogue Center, all the while serving as bookkeeper and secretary, and licensed lighting consultant for Kelly Electric.
It is apparent to anyone who knew or worked with them during their very active years in Albia, Iowa, that they made a vital contribution to their hometown.