By Ila Preti
Give a hearty welcome to delightful, talented Helen Kelly who joined us in October! Many of us knew her from her very active participation in many community organizations.
Born in Manhattan, Helen attended Cathedral High School. She graduated with a B.S. from Mt. St. Vincent College in Riverdale; her major was Business Administration.
Her career began as an Advertising Agency Account Executive at J. Walter Thompson and Abbott Kimball. She later became the Fashion Advertising Director at the New Yorker Magazine. (This is where she met Jane Smiley who later introduced her to Sarasota and, much later, to Plymouth Harbor.)
Helen married John Love Kelly in 1952; living in Cortland Manor, N.Y., they raised two children, Janet and J. Scott. Their four grandchildren are scattered around the country. Helen enjoys following the exploits of her son who lives in Salt Lake City and is an avid triathlon participant.
When they retired from the advertising world, Helen and John moved to Siesta Key where they lived for eleven happy years. After her husband’s death in 2004, Helen moved to a beautiful ‘tree house’ in the Landings.
Helen’s community service record is spectacular. At the Women’s Resource Center she has been a board member, newsletter editor and Scholarship committee co-chair. A former board member of the Sarasota Orchestra Association, Helen was the editor of their newsletter. She worked on the Selby Library Reading Festival. As a former member of the Mission Valley Golf Club, she was on the staff of their Valley Views newsletter.
Helen now attends classes at the USF Lifetime Learning program, studying ‘Great Books’ and Creative Writing; her memoirs are the current writing project. She is interested in the theatre and subscribes to the Asolo and Florida Studio Theatres. She also enjoys the Town Hall lecture series.
While she has many happy memories to look back on, she remembers, with special fondness, a ‘home exchange’ with a family from Montremont, France (near Lyon). Welcomed there by the family and friends of the exchange couple, it was a memorable month.
An active, dynamic woman with an infectious smile, we look forward to Helen Kelly’s involvement in Plymouth Harbor!