Lee Edward Kelly

Services for Lee E. (Ed) Kelly Jr. are at 2 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. Interment will follow at Laurel Hill Cemetery, with Rev. Dr. Milton C. Gardner and the Rev. Marty Carnes officiating. Mr. Kelly died Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014, at his home. He was born in Thomasville on Sept. 27, 1925, a son of the late Lee Edward Kelly Sr. and Minnie Darley Kelly. On Dec. 27, 1964, he married the former Patricia Voncille Parker of Jacksonville, Fla., who survives. Mr. Kelly was retired editor-publisher of the Thomasville Times-Enterprise. He joined the Times-Enterprise in 1951, as a news reporter after working in the same capacity for a year with The Atlanta Constitution, following his 1950 graduation from Emory University in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. During his senior year, he was editor of The Emory Wheel, the weekly student newspaper. He also attended and received a certificate from the American Press Institute after courses taken at Columbia University, New York City, in 1964. He won numerous news-writing and photography awards from The Associated Press and the Georgia Press Association. Until he retired from the Times-Enterprise in 1982, shortly after its sale to Thomson Newspapers of Toronto, Canada, he was president of the Times-Enterprise Company. Shortly after returning to his hometown of Thomasville, he helped to organize and served two terms as the first president of the Thomasville Jaycees. He was a former member of the Thomasville Kiwanis Club and a member of the Thomasville Rotary Club from 1986 to 2003. His active civic involvement included four years on the Thomasville City Commission (now the City Council), was vice chairman of the Thomasville Rose Festival, served two terms as president of the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce, in addition to service on the chamber’s many committees. He was a founder and secretary of City of Thomasville’s Department of Industrial Promotion and Expansion, which helped to launch and finance many of the city’s present industrial firms, hiring retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. T.F. Halloran as its first director. Mr. Kelly served one term as vice president of the Georgia Municipal Association, was originator and past chairman of the Rose Queen Beauty Pageant, later the Miss Thomas County and Miss Thomasville pageants, Miss Georgia and Miss America preliminaries, served as a trustee of the Thomasville Music and Drama Troupe, was a member of Second District Democratic Congressional Committee and was one-time aide to then-Congressman J.L. Pilcher of Meigs and was twice selected by Thomasville Jaycees as Thomas County’s “Outstanding Young Man of the Year.” While on the City Commission, Mr. Kelly headed the move to establish a new municipal airport at its present location on Pavo Road, converting the old airport on Campbell Street to an industrial park, served as Thomasville Civil Defense Director in 1955, served four years on the Thomasville YMCA Board of Directors, was one-time member of Flowers Foods Pension Trust Board, was chairman of The Community Chest (now United Way of Thomas County) and a member of The Salvation Army advisory board, served two terms as foreman of the Thomas County Grand Jury, served 20 years on the Archbold Memorial Medical Center Board of Trustees, 20 years on the Citizens & Southern Bank Board of Directors and was a member of Kappa Alpha Order, social fraternity, and Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalistic fraternity. Along with Dr. Jim Story, he was a founder of the original Rose City Run in 1976. Mr. Kelly was a lifelong member of First Baptist Church, where he served several terms as deacon, and once taught an adult Sunday School class. In 1996, he was named an Honorary Life Deacon. After a disastrous fire destroyed the old First Baptist Church building, Mr. Kelly and his two brothers and sister bought and contributed the five-manual pipe organ for the new church sanctuary. Mr. Kelly served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) during World War II as a radar mechanic on high-altitude bombers. He has been a member of T.L. Spence Post 31 of The American Legion since his army discharge in May 1946. He was among a select group of Georgia newsmen invited to lunch at the White House in February 1964 with President John F. Kennedy, who the following November was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Also, he was honored that he could have met, shook hands with and conversed with Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Carter, and then-Speaker of the U.S. House Sam Rayburn. As a newspaper publisher, he was proud to have been perhaps the first in Georgia, and maybe even in the South, to hire a black reporter during the 1960s civil rights crisis, long before some of the so-called liberal publishers of the South did so. He characterized the newspaper’s editorial policy as neither “liberal” nor “conservative,” but “progressive.” His willingness to give people and ideas a chance paved the pathway for several beginners under him who went on to outstanding journalistic achievements in news, photography and television, publishers and editors. As a Thomasville High School freshman, he represented Thomasville’s American Legion Post 31 at Georgia Boys State at Oglethorpe College in Atlanta, where he lost a narrow election as a candidate for governor. Following his newspaper career, Mr. Kelly spent his busy retirement as an active investor, buying and selling stocks on-line at his office, along with occasional real estate transactions, including being a developer or partner in three subdivisions: Roundtree Place, Sherwood Forest and Cloverdale Homes. Because of his interest in photography and history, Mr. Kelly made it possible for the Thomas County Museum of History to display thousands of local-interest photos on Facebook, which have won raves from across the nation, through his contribution of the Times-Enterprise’s 30-year-old (1952-1982) photographic archives. After his retirement, Mr. Kelly and his wife frequently traveled. Their two children, who survive, are Susan Elizabeth Menosky, and Lee E. (Kel) Kelly III, both of Atlanta. Other survivors include a brother, John D. (Jack) Kelly and wife, Janis, Thomasville; sister-in-law, Gwen Park Kelly, of Macon, formerly of Thomasville; brother-in-law, J. Dale Cowart and wife, Donna, of Nashville, Tenn.; sister-in-law, Rebecca Parker, of Hinesville; and various nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by a brother, Daniel L. (Danimar), of Thomasville, and a sister, Annette Kelly Marks, of Jacksonville, Fla. Visitation is from 1:15 to 2 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014, at First Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to First Baptist Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 2790, Thomasville, Ga. 31799 or The American Lung Association, 55 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 1150, Chicago, Ill. 60601 ( www.lung.org ). — Allen & Allen Funeral Home