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Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley, known as Nanny Kelley to her grandchildren. Married in 1897, she and John Kelley had seven children.
Nellie was responsible for creating the close knit Kelley family. Rose their sixth child died at birth in 1906; and of her six living children, all the girls remained in Philadelphia, but her two sons moved away, one to New York and the other to Washington, DC. But her home on Chester Ave in Philadelphia and another in Ocean City, New Jersey provided central gathering places all year for the family where siblings stayed in touch and cousins became friends.
A typical day at 244 Asbury Avenue in Ocean City started with Aunt Jean making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of several large loaves of Wonder bread then putting the sandwiches back into the Wonder bread bags until lunch. Next Nanny Kelley and the kids all piled into the cars and headed for the beach where we were left under the watchful eyes of Nanny and parents for the rest of the day. Nanny spend the day in her beach chair under an umbrella refereeing.
As soon as we got home in the afternoon, our sun burns were treated with cold wet tea bags. Dinner was an organized mob scene. Children sat on ironing boards between two chairs around a big round table. After dinner was cleared away everyone except the babies played a very noisy game of multiple solitaire where you could play a card on anyone's ace on the table.
After the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th 1941 there were no more Kelley gatherings at the beach, but Aunt Alice and Uncle Harold Looby came to our rescue and bought a farm in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The Looby farm provided the gathering place for the Kelley family with Nanny Kelley holding forth in her beach chair under the branches of a huge maple tree in the yard.
Nellie died at age 85 on 13 Jun 1958 of myacardial degeneration, hypertension cardio vascular disease, and colon cancer. She is buried with her husband in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.
Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley was a confirmed "triskaidekaphile" (a person who likes the number 13.) The word is made from two Greek words meaning 13 and love. She enjoyed finding "13" in street numbers, dates, etc. She passed this belief that 13 is the Kelley's lucky number on to her children. Her son, John, sent her a picture of the house he had just bought in 1947 with a note on the back that reads, "Mama, Bought on 13th, has 13 rooms and will move in on 13th, God Willing."
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Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley, known as Nanny Kelley to her grandchildren. Married in 1897, she and John Kelley had seven children.
Nellie was responsible for creating the close knit Kelley family. Rose their sixth child died at birth in 1906; and of her six living children, all the girls remained in Philadelphia, but her two sons moved away, one to New York and the other to Washington, DC. But her home on Chester Ave in Philadelphia and another in Ocean City, New Jersey provided central gathering places all year for the family where siblings stayed in touch and cousins became friends.
A typical day at 244 Asbury Avenue in Ocean City started with Aunt Jean making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of several large loaves of Wonder bread then putting the sandwiches back into the Wonder bread bags until lunch. Next Nanny Kelley and the kids all piled into the cars and headed for the beach where we were left under the watchful eyes of Nanny and parents for the rest of the day. Nanny spend the day in her beach chair under an umbrella refereeing.
As soon as we got home in the afternoon, our sun burns were treated with cold wet tea bags. Dinner was an organized mob scene. Children sat on ironing boards between two chairs around a big round table. After dinner was cleared away everyone except the babies played a very noisy game of multiple solitaire where you could play a card on anyone's ace on the table.
After the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th 1941 there were no more Kelley gatherings at the beach, but Aunt Alice and Uncle Harold Looby came to our rescue and bought a farm in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The Looby farm provided the gathering place for the Kelley family with Nanny Kelley holding forth in her beach chair under the branches of a huge maple tree in the yard.
Nellie died at age 85 on 13 Jun 1958 of myacardial degeneration, hypertension cardio vascular disease, and colon cancer. She is buried with her husband in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.
Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley was a confirmed "triskaidekaphile" (a person who likes the number 13.) The word is made from two Greek words meaning 13 and love. She enjoyed finding "13" in street numbers, dates, etc. She passed this belief that 13 is the Kelley's lucky number on to her children. Her son, John, sent her a picture of the house he had just bought in 1947 with a note on the back that reads, "Mama, Bought on 13th, has 13 rooms and will move in on 13th, God Willing."
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Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley, known as Nanny Kelley to her grandchildren. Married in 1897, she and John Kelley had seven children.
Nellie was responsible for creating the close knit Kelley family. Rose their sixth child died at birth in 1906; and of her six living children, all the girls remained in Philadelphia, but her two sons moved away, one to New York and the other to Washington, DC. But her home on Chester Ave in Philadelphia and another in Ocean City, New Jersey provided central gathering places all year for the family where siblings stayed in touch and cousins became friends.
A typical day at 244 Asbury Avenue in Ocean City started with Aunt Jean making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of several large loaves of Wonder bread then putting the sandwiches back into the Wonder bread bags until lunch. Next Nanny Kelley and the kids all piled into the cars and headed for the beach where we were left under the watchful eyes of Nanny and parents for the rest of the day. Nanny spend the day in her beach chair under an umbrella refereeing.
As soon as we got home in the afternoon, our sun burns were treated with cold wet tea bags. Dinner was an organized mob scene. Children sat on ironing boards between two chairs around a big round table. After dinner was cleared away everyone except the babies played a very noisy game of multiple solitaire where you could play a card on anyone's ace on the table.
After the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th 1941 there were no more Kelley gatherings at the beach, but Aunt Alice and Uncle Harold Looby came to our rescue and bought a farm in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The Looby farm provided the gathering place for the Kelley family with Nanny Kelley holding forth in her beach chair under the branches of a huge maple tree in the yard.
Nellie died at age 85 on 13 Jun 1958 of myacardial degeneration, hypertension cardio vascular disease, and colon cancer. She is buried with her husband in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.
Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley was a confirmed "triskaidekaphile" (a person who likes the number 13.) The word is made from two Greek words meaning 13 and love. She enjoyed finding "13" in street numbers, dates, etc. She passed this belief that 13 is the Kelley's lucky number on to her children. Her son, John, sent her a picture of the house he had just bought in 1947 with a note on the back that reads, "Mama, Bought on 13th, has 13 rooms and will move in on 13th, God Willing."
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Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley, known as Nanny Kelley to her grandchildren. Married in 1897, she and John Kelley had seven children.
Nellie was responsible for creating the close knit Kelley family. Rose their sixth child died at birth in 1906; and of her six living children, all the girls remained in Philadelphia, but her two sons moved away, one to New York and the other to Washington, DC. But her home on Chester Ave in Philadelphia and another in Ocean City, New Jersey provided central gathering places all year for the family where siblings stayed in touch and cousins became friends.
A typical day at 244 Asbury Avenue in Ocean City started with Aunt Jean making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of several large loaves of Wonder bread then putting the sandwiches back into the Wonder bread bags until lunch. Next Nanny Kelley and the kids all piled into the cars and headed for the beach where we were left under the watchful eyes of Nanny and parents for the rest of the day. Nanny spend the day in her beach chair under an umbrella refereeing.
As soon as we got home in the afternoon, our sun burns were treated with cold wet tea bags. Dinner was an organized mob scene. Children sat on ironing boards between two chairs around a big round table. After dinner was cleared away everyone except the babies played a very noisy game of multiple solitaire where you could play a card on anyone's ace on the table.
After the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th 1941 there were no more Kelley gatherings at the beach, but Aunt Alice and Uncle Harold Looby came to our rescue and bought a farm in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The Looby farm provided the gathering place for the Kelley family with Nanny Kelley holding forth in her beach chair under the branches of a huge maple tree in the yard.
Nellie died at age 85 on 13 Jun 1958 of myacardial degeneration, hypertension cardio vascular disease, and colon cancer. She is buried with her husband in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.
Mary Ellen Finegan Kelley was a confirmed "triskaidekaphile" (a person who likes the number 13.) The word is made from two Greek words meaning 13 and love. She enjoyed finding "13" in street numbers, dates, etc. She passed this belief that 13 is the Kelley's lucky number on to her children. Her son, John, sent her a picture of the house he had just bought in 1947 with a note on the back that reads, "Mama, Bought on 13th, has 13 rooms and will move in on 13th, God Willing."
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