Gloria Mayer Kelly

It was a cold morning in northern New Jersey on May 2, 1926, when Gloria Kelly was born, delivered at home by the local doctor, who was assisted by her father, William Mayer.  Shortly after her birth, her father built his family a small house on a pond in the forest outside of Morristown, New Jersey.  It was there that Gloria welcomed three sisters into their family and grew up with a love of nature that stayed with her through her final days.  She not only loved flowers and cloud formations, but she also loved animals (except for rodents!), fresh vegetables, and just being outside.

She loved a lot in life, especially Thomas J. Kelly, her husband of 62 years who left her for a better world on March 12, 2012.   She met Tom, (Tommy as he was known back then), in 1948 when she and her sister Joan went to a roller-skating rink with a very stern instruction from their mother, “Don’t come home with any boys,” which they promptly did.  At the skating rink, the two sisters met two best friends whom they later married.  Shortly thereafter, Tom accepted a job offer, and he and Gloria packed their young family into a car and moved to “The Great Unknown” –Atlanta, Georgia.  Almost as soon as they arrived, they both knew they had found their home.

In Atlanta, Gloria and Tom raised their three children, Mark, Sharon, and Dennis, and lovingly watched as those three grew and raised their own families, producing nine grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren, with a 20^th moments away.  Gloria’s love of children went beyond her own.  She was a founding faculty member and taught for over 15 years in the Pre-school program at St. Bede Episcopal Church in Tucker, and helped Father Austin Ford establish the Head Start program at Emmaus House in Peoplestown.

A great lover of music, Gloria’s home was often filled with constant music, ranging from Broadway to Bach to Peter, Paul, & Mary, and everything in between.

In addition to music, she loved culture and travel.  After Tom retired, the two of them navigated their way around the world, visiting every continent except Antarctica.  It was always a family highlight when they came back from a trip, and Gloria would cook a dish from wherever they had been.  Everyone would then look at pictures from the trip and receive a detailed history lesson from Grandma.

Gloria followed politics intensely to the very end and loved telling people what she liked and didn’t like.  A child of the Great Depression, she believed strongly in the adage that if people work hard for the United States of America, the government will work hard for them.  An intense proponent of non-profit programs, she and Tom volunteered for over twenty years as a docents at Fernbank Science Center.  In addition to that, they worked on multiple Habitat builds and spent hundreds of hours helping with the 1996 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies.

ALL are welcome to attend the Funeral Mass which will be celebrated at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, Lilburn Ga., on Thursday July 21 at 11:00 AM, with a reception to follow.  In lieu of flowers or a donation, the family asks that all those who knew Gloria or have been touched by her story volunteer a few hours to their favorite charity in her honor.  That would make her very happy.