Nell Dean (Foster) Kelly, 88
Nell Dean (Foster) Kelly, 88, the second of four children, was born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1935, to Emma Della Summerville and Charles Alonzo Foster. Emma and Charles were two tough and shrewd ranchers born near the beginning of the 20th Century.
When Nell was nine months old, the family moved to Aumsville, Oregon. She remembered her mother listening to the radio, worried about her older brother, Charles Jr., who fought in the Pacific in WWII.
She helped raise two more younger brothers, Jerry and Dan, and a variety of animals on the small family farm. She picked strawberries in the summer to buy new school clothes. She was a gifted athlete and not afraid to outshine the boys on the baseball field. They frequently chased her home in their frustration. The expression, “Run to the roundhouse, Nellie, they can’t corner you there!” often rang through the neighborhood.
Her adventurous spirit made her opt to fast track her professional career and leave Oregon State after 2 years. Instead, she hopped a bus to Hollywood, California, where she passed her teletype exam and became a flight attendant for Pan Am.
The country girl traveled all over the western hemisphere and transformed herself into an independent, fun-loving, cosmopolitan woman. It wasn’t long before some of the men she was running away from caught her. In 1963, one lucky one did, Parker Siegert Kelly, Esq. and they spent the next 60 years together.
Calling the San Francisco peninsula her home, Nell worked for many years at the AAA legal insurance firm Nagle, Vale, McDowell and Cotter as a legal secretary and juggled the kids, groceries, cooking, laundry and the whims of her husband. Selfless to a fault, her only guilty pleasures were dime novels, happy hour and episodes of Perry Mason. Dutiful, unassuming and never a bother, she loved her family, her dogs and gave all that she had to them. She was a calming influence on everyone who spent time with her.
She passed peacefully on Oct. 8, with family by her side, as the golden leaves of her favorite season floated in the Montana breeze, and country music played on the radio.
She is survived by her son, Parker Jr.; her daughter, Nancy; her two grandchildren, Ashlyn and Austin; and her dog Heloise.
Austin Funeral & Cremation Services in Whitefish is caring for the family. To send online condolences please visit Nell’s tribute page at www.austinfh.com.