Edna Louise Kelley, 100, of Derry, NH, died Sunday August 8, 2004 at the Pleasant Valley Nursing Center in Derry. Mrs. Kelley was born March 10, 1904, in Greenville, NJ, the daughter of Arthur and Louisa (Timmins) Downing and sister to Richard Downing. The family moved to the "Webb Farm" on Wakefield St. in Reading, MA. During her junior high years, the family moved to Derry where she graduated from Pinkerton Academy, Class of 1921. She attended Plymouth Normal School, and was the teacher for six classes at the Kilrea School in Derry. She married Earle E. Kelley of Derry in 1927 and they moved to New Jersey where Earle worked in electronics labs. They moved back to Derry in 1933 and bought the house on North Main Street. Here they raised their family of three sons and a daughter and enjoyed their 68th wedding anniversary before Earle died in 1996. She was a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, substitute teacher, avid gardener, seamstress, and made many braided rugs and terrific doughnuts. She was the oldest member of the Central Congregational Church in Derry, where she was a member of the Ladies Benevolent Society and the Chameleon Club.
She is survived by three sons, Robert Kelley and his wife Jean of Londonderry, NH, Richard Kelley and his wife Phyllis of So. Glastonbury, CT, William Kelley and his wife Dorothy of Amherst, NH, one daughter, Lois Kelley Bond and her husband Alan Bond of Rochester, VT, 14 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held on Friday at 10:30am at the Central Congregational Church, 14 Crescent St., Derry. The burial will follow in the Forest Hill Cemetery in E. Derry. Friends may call on Thursday from 2 - 4 and 7 - 9pm at the Peabody Funeral Homes and Crematorium, 15 Birch St., Derry. Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of one’s choice or to the Central Congregational Church, 14 Crescent St., Derry, NH 03038.