Evelyn Beatrice (Collins) Kelley, 92, of 240 High Street, Berlin, NH, died peacefully with family at the Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, Sunday morning, June 24, 2007.
She was born in Berlin October 28, 1914, the oldest of three children born to Alphonse A. Collins and Margaret A. (Blaney) Collins. She attended St. Patrick’s Grammar School and graduated from Berlin High School with the Class of 1932 and remained active in organizing class reunions through the years. After graduation, she went to work for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company on Main Street in Berlin where she was employed until her marriage to Emmet J. Kelley on July 8, 1948. She then became a homemaker, and together they raised two sons. She was also Secretary-Treasurer at White Mountain Lumber Company. She enjoyed life in Berlin and time spent visiting with family and friends and being at “The Farm” next to White Mountain Lumber Company. She was a life-long member of the Catholic community in Berlin, and a communicant of St. Kieran Church, now known as Good Shepherd Parish. For the last 20 years, she has been busy enjoying and following the academic, social and athletic activities of her eight local grandchildren. Her sense of humor and the accuracy and expanse of her personal reminiscences have been a real joy to her family. Evelyn loved her family, her extended family, reading, chocolate and her cats. In her youth she was a marvelous dancer, noted for her beauty, and in her later years, she was referred to as “une belle bonne femme.”
She was predeceased by her father, Alphonse, in 1964, her mother, Margaret, in September of 1975, her husband, Emmet, in December of 1975, her brother, Raymond, in 1988, and her infant granddaughter, Eibhlin, in 1990.
She is survived by her son, Barry, his wife, Elaine, and their children, Siobhan, Quinn, Brynna, and Devin of Berlin; her son, Mark, his wife, Kathleen, and their children, Eoghan, Eamon, Aoibhinn and Eileen of Randolph. She also leaves her sister and closest friend, Betty Chappell, and her husband, Frank; her sisters-in-law, Felice Collins and Lorraine Kelley, and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday June 27, 2007 at 11:00 AM at St. Anne Church of Good Shepherd Parish. Interment will follow in the Calvary Cemetery. Relatives and friends may call at the Bryant Funeral Home, 180 Hillside Ave. on Tuesday afternoon and evening from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Evelyn’s name to St. Vincent de Paul Healthcare Center Chapel Fund, 29 Providence Avenue, Berlin, NH 03570, where she had been a resident.