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Ellen G. Kelly, age 103, passed away Tuesday, August 5, 2008, at the Health Care facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee where she had been under Hospice care since April 2008.
Ellen was born in Cedar Lake MI, to Fred and Leona Collins, but at the age of 4, traveled with her family in a covered wagon, first to Missouri, then Arkansas, and a few years later back to the Onaway area. The Collins family, which by now included four girls and two boys, settled first "out east of town", later moving to what would come to be called "Collins Road". After finishing high school she took County Normal and taught in local schools.
In 1929 she married Richard O. Kelly. They moved frequently between Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, and Tennessee for the next 20 years, especially during the "war years" when Richard was "drafted to defense work". Employment by the SDA church in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and Berrien Springs, Michigan, preceded their retirement near Collegedale, Tennessee, in 1969. After Richard's death in 1985 Ellen lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Bille and Paul Burdick, until entering hospice care.
She was a life-long member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and continued to visit the Onaway SDA church whenever she returned to spend time with her family members who had remained in the Onaway area.
She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Bille and Paul Burdick of Ooltewah; her grandsons, Rich Burdick of Montrose, CO, and Gary Burdick of Berrien Springs, MI, and their families; seven great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren; several nieces and one sister, Louise Bouford.
She was preceded in death by her husband Richard Kelly, her brothers Edgarand Fred Collins; and her sisters, Alice, Evelyn, and Gladys Gilbert. |
