Elizabeth (Libby) Kelley

Mrs. Libby Kelley, 89, Topeka, Kansas, passed away Tuesday night, August 3, 2010 in her home.

Catherine Elizabeth "Libby" (Ramsey) Kelley, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on September 6, 1920. She was the only child of Judge John Rollin Ramsey and Araminta Pearl (Winders) Ramsey, who had moved after their marriage in 1905 from the small Illinois town of Aledo to "Indian Territory" two years before it became the state of Oklahoma. From childhood into high school, young Elizabeth studied piano, rode horseback, and excelled in archery. She had an artist's eye, an avid curiosity, and a creative and trusting sense of adventure.

Libby attended Duke University, in Durham, NC, where she sang in the Chapel Choir. There she met her beloved Jim (James Woodruff Kelley), on Sunday, December 7, 1941. They had both just finished singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, and were hearing the news that the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor. After graduation, Libby returned to Tulsa and worked as a secretary at Standard Oil until Jim returned from World War II. She quit her job on his return, and they were married ten days later, on September 15, 1945. In 1949, after his military service and surgical residency were completed in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Libby and Jim came home to Tulsa to stay, with their first daughter, Elizabeth Ann (born in 1947 at Duke). Libby devoted herself to her husband and young family, as they welcomed their second daughter Carolyn, in 1951, and their third daughter Patricia, in 1954.

At Duke, Libby was a member of Delta Gamma, participated in student government, and became president of her dormitory. In Tulsa she was active in PEO, Junior League, and the Women's Medical Auxiliary. After moving to Topeka in 1970, she became involved with the Mulvane Art Center's International Bazaar, volunteered at First Presbyterian Church, joined the American Contract Bridge League, and became an enthusiastic supporter of Washburn's athletics program. She cheered louder than anyone else at basketball games. Her passion for gardening (flowering plants as well as fruits and vegetables), could be seen in their yard and "Kelley's Korner," the park-like lot that she and Jim preserved across the street from their Topeka home. Libby was a skilled athlete (tennis, golf), and photographer. While she loved being a homemaker, she was also fascinated by different arts and cultures, and traveled widely...to Cuba, Jamaica, Alaska, Scandinavia, China, Yugoslavia, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Amazon River, Mediterranean, Panama Canal, Caribbean, Austria, Canadian Rockies, Nova Scotia and Africa (probably their favorite)…many of these with Jim, aka Doc, after he retired. Jim and Libby were married for 59 years.

Throughout her life, Libby and her family shared a love affair with Minnesota, where she spent countless hours fishing (she always came home with the 'big one'), picking raspberries and wild blueberries, and waterskiing (up to age 72). Always ready to laugh, Libby had a gentle and playful sense of humor, and a genuine interest in the lives and families of everyone she knew. She gave her love easily and generously to family and friends alike, and there is no greater tribute to her life than the love that they returned in kind. A loving wife, mother and grandmother, she will be sorely missed by her daughters, son-in-law, and three grandsons... Ann/Annie Kelley of Santa Cruz, CA; Carolyn Kelley and Scotland Schieber of Seattle, WA; Patricia and Eric Ladue of Tempe, AZ; Travis Ladue of Tempe, AZ, at Arizona State University Graphic Design School; and Tyler Ladue, newly of Ann Arbor, MI, at University of Michigan Medical School.

Funeral services will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 14, 2010 at First Presbyterian Church. Interment will follow at the Penwell-Gabel Cemetery, Topeka. Libby will lie in state after 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 13 at the Penwell-Gabel Mid-Town Chapel, 1321 SW 10th Ave., Topeka, where the family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to First Presbyterian Church, 817 SW Harrison, Topeka, KS 66612 or John R. Ramsey Law School Endowment Fund, c/o Washburn University, 1700 SW College, Topeka, KS 66621.