My parents, James Alvin Kelly and Wilma Elizabeth Blythe Kelly, were married in Mystic, IA on May 4, 1946. My mother had been living with her parents, her maternal grandmother, and her small son, my older brother, Michael. She had worked as a bookkeeper for her father's welding business.
My father served in the United States Army during WWII. He achieved the rank of Master Sergeant, Tank Corp Instructor. While preparing to be shipped to the South Pacific, he was injured by a runaway tank (as a youngster, I wasn't sure why the tank would run away). His left leg was crushed in the accident. He was sent to an Army Hospital in Denver where surgery, including bone transplants, repaired much of the damage. His leg bones were bolted together and wrapped in stainless steel mesh that resembled chicken wire. During his recovery in Denver, General George Patton presented him with a Purple Heart. Daddy said that he had told his doctors that the large body cast he was wearing was crooked. After the presentation of the medal, he asked General Patton if he thought the cast was straight. Within the hour, the crooked cast was removed and a new straight one had been put in its place. He was later evaced to a military hospital at Clinton, IA. Daddy always liked to watch movies about the General, especially "Patton." He credited General Patton with his ability to walk after his 23 months in a body cast. Before enlisting in the Army, and even as a small boy, my father worked in Balentine's Dry Goods on Main Street in Mystic.
He used to tell stories about working for seven to seven for 25 cents a day, six days a week. One he told us about a "safe house" up on the Christian Church Street Hill in mystic that was owned by Al Capone and how sometimes he would make store deliveries or pick up packages from the train to be delivered to the house. He said that he always like to make those deliveries because the housekeeper always gave him a good tip. One time he got a crisp new $10 bill. I've asked a few others about the Capone story. It seems to be at least based on fact. Mystic was, back then, a thriving mining community on the main rail line from Chicago. It was incredibly easy for associates of the famous gangster to catch a train to houses located in small towns throughout the midwest.
My dad was quite a basketball star at Mystic High School. After graduation he did some coaching and them worked for the traveling company of the Harlem Globe Trotters on their Midwest schedule. Years later, I think about the time I was in Jr. High School, the Trotters did several television broadcasts. He talked about being the ref who bore the brunt of most of Goose Tatum's jokes on the court, like the ball fastened to the end of a huge rubber band and the bucket that sometimes was filled with water instead of shredded paper. He also talked about traveling around the country in the dead of winter in Model A's and being stranded in the middle of nowhere by sudden snow storms (no weather radio up-to-the-minute forecasts back then). More than once I watched him spin a basketball on the end of his middle finger.
In 1946, my folks purchased three lots and a tiny cement-block house at 235 North Tenth Street and he started Kelly Electric, an electrical contracting business. Over the years he did work for almost everyone and every business in Monroe County and many other areas in southern Iowa. He worked with the Della Vedova Brothers to wire many of the original HyVee Stores, did the electrical work for the Albia School District, the new Super Value Store, Goode's Feed Stores and Elevators, the Albia Manor, and most of the stores on the square as well as the City of Albia. He also wired many of the new homes built in Albia over the thirty plus years that he was in business.
On the side, he built his tiny house into a five-bedroom home for his family, served on the second response volunteer fire department, worked with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and caught his share of fish in most of the farm ponds in the county.
In the meantime, my mother was busy raising 6 children to be responsible, caring adults. She was PTA President, room mother, band mothers president, secretary of the National Retarded Children's Association, artist, friend and mother confessor to us all. She was a fabulous baker, taking lessons and baking wedding and special occasions cakes for the community. She was Girl Scout leader, Cub Scout leader and parent volunteer. In the '60s she worked as a cook at the nursing home and an order clerk at the Montgomery Wards Catalogue Center. And all the time she was bookkeeper and secretary for Kelly Electric. Susan Kelly Templin
BLYTHE-KELLY WEDDING The Methodist Church Parsonage was the scene of a happy wedding Saturday evening when Rev. M.R. Gonzalez read the single ring ceremony which united the lives of Miss Wilma E. Blythe and James Alvin Kelly. The couple were attended by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Miller, of Centerville, brother-in-law and sister of the bride. Mrs. Kelly is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Blythe, of Centerville, and Mr. Kelly is the son of Mrs. Myrtle Kelly, of Mystic. The bride graduated from Centerville High School in 1938 and since that time has lived with her parents, assisting her father in his welding shop as bookkeeper. The groom is a graduate of Mystic High School and was employed at the Bittinger Novelty Store, here in Mystic, before entering the Armed Forces. Alvin served three years in the service of Uncle Sam (Army). The bride wore a black and white silk ensemble, small black hat with veil trim, black accessories and a corsage of white roses. She carried a blue silk handkerchief which belonged to her great aunt. The matron of honor wore a two-piece suit of light gray wool, a small black hat, black accessories and a corsage of red roses. A pre-nuptial shower was held for Mrs. Kelly at the home of her parents Friday evening with a large number of friends and neighbors present. The party was planned by the bride's sisters: Mesdames Bill Miller and Tom Miller, and Mrs. Ed Simmons, a friend and neighbor. Gifts and best wishes made a happy occasion for the bride-to-be.
