Mary Edith Johns Kelley

Mary Edith Johns Kelley, 92, retired Maury County teacher and former resident of Greenwood Acres Drive, died Saturday, November 21, 2009 at Summitt Medical Center.Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at Oakes & Nichols with Rev. Jerry Williams, Jr., pastor of Green Hill Church in Mt. Juliet, officiating. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Tuesday from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com.Born September 29, 1917 in the Cross Bridges Community, she was the oldest of nine children of the late Porter B. Johns, Sr. and Liza Jane Lynn Johns. Mrs. Kelley attended Cross Bridges School and was a graduate of Hampshire High School. She earned a B.S. degree in Education from Middle Tennessee State University. During her 38-year teaching career in the Maury County school system, she taught at Elmore, Campbell Station, Zion, Union Grove, Woodrow, and Water Valley schools. The last 22 years were spent at Santa Fe School from which she retired in 1978. In the early to mid-nineteen fifties, she worked for nine years at Woolworth's during school holidays and vacations.She married Archie Porter Kelley in 1956. Following Mr. Kelly's death February 15, 1969, she maintained her home on Greenwood Acres Drive in Columbia until 2002. After retiring she pieced and hand-quilted quilts. When her eye sight began to fail, she moved to Mt. Juliet with her daughter. Mrs. Kelley continued to sew with a new computerized sewing machine and began to make rag quilts and fleece blankets. The quilt that will cover her casket was made by families of the Water Valley Community as a wedding gift in 1956. She is survived by her daughter, Mary Porter Conner (Reid) of Mt. Juliet; step-grandchildren, Reid Conner II (Jennifer) of Murfreesboro, and Erin Karlow (Tim) of Crystal Lake, Illinois. Her surviving siblings include Evelyn Dooley of Fayetteville, Nina Severson of Sacramento, California, Frankie Bostick (Carter) of Mt. Pleasant, Linda Orton (Norman) of Lawrenceburg, and Billie Johns (Janis) of Columbia. Three siblings preceded her in death: Gertrude Jones Nash, Porter Johns, Jr., and Mahlon Johns. She has many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews. Pallbearers are Chris Bostick, Reid Conner II, Hunter Freemont , Larry Johns, Mark Rogers, and Randy Southall.