Laura Jobe Kelly

Our working week and our Sunday rest….” W. H. Auden

Tenacious to the end, Laura Jobe Kelly passed away at her home on August 29, 2023, after a valiant battle with metastatic breast cancer. She lived her 70 years to the full; it was a life filled with various occupations, a multitude of accomplishments, and countless friends.

Laura was born in Gladewater, Texas, on January 23, 1953. Her intellectual gifts were evident at an early age: she learned to read at the age of four, at the recommendation of the elementary school, she skipped third grade; she earned Texas UIL honors in the Numbers Sense contest, was editor of Gladewater High’s yearbook, and graduated in 1970 as the class salutatorian. In 2021, she was named a Gladewater High School distinguished alum, in recognition of her extraordinary life.

Of the many academic scholarship offers she received, she chose to attend The University of Texas at Austin, where she excelled in every aspect of college life. She served as treasurer of her sorority, Delta Gamma, and remained a devoted DG for the rest of her life.

Laura was a third-generation pharmacist and graduated with honors in four years from The University of Texas School of Pharmacy. One of her proudest moments was being presented with her diploma, which was signed by her father, Taylor Jobe, who served as President of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy.

While practicing pharmacy at Walgreen’s in Dallas, Laura saw an ad for a free introductory airplane lesson. After the lesson, Laura was hooked on flying. She earned her pilot’s license in six weeks, a feat that usually takes at least a year. She was the traffic pilot for WFAA in Dallas, flew for the State of Texas, and flew Lear Jets for an oil company.

Laura learned of an opportunity to ferry a plane from Brussels, Belgium to St. Louis, Missouri No other pilot would take the job, as it was winter; flying across the Atlantic during that time was dangerous. But, with her eye towards earning a commercial pilot’s license, and needing flight hours, Laura accepted the job to make a solo Transatlantic flight. During the harrowing nighttime flight, she developed icing on her wings. Unable to maintain altitude, she descended down to fly just 200 feet over the North Atlantic Ocean to allow the ice to melt.

After that experience, she became a flight instructor, certified to instruct on single, multi-engine, and jet aircraft, and bought her own twin-engine airplane. Laura later became one of the first female pilots hired by Braniff Airlines.

At some point, Laura decided that she wanted to sit in the back of the plane and let someone else do the piloting. She became a successful stockbroker with Shearson-Lehman on Wall Street in New York City. One afternoon after relocating to Shearson in Austin, she placed a cold call to Pat Kelly, a young Austin trial attorney, trying to earn his business. Not only did she get his business, three months later, Laura and Pat were married at Caswell House in Austin, beginning a 39-year partnership.

Eventually, Laura’s love for pharmacy took over, and she worked for decades at Tarrytown Pharmacy and Nau’s Enfield Drug. She was a dedicated employee and her clients relied on her as a welcoming and trusted resource. She served the Tarrytown and Clarksville communities until her illness precluded her from working.

Of her four occupations, the one she relished most was as mother to Clay and Kacy. She was a force as a volunteer at Casis Elementary, O. Henry Middle School, and at Austin High School. When Austin ISD discontinued funding for kindergarten art and music programs, Laura and friends volunteered to teach music to the kindergartners. She was a perpetual home-room mother and driver of carpools and field trips. At the beginning of Clay’s seventh-grade year, when the class schedules at O. Henry Middle school were irretrievably broken for two days, and students lined the halls, waiting for their correct class assignments, Laura convinced the school principal and counselors to let her try to fix the scheduling problems. She got on the school’s computers, and within one day, order had been restored.

Laura believed there was nothing she couldn’t accomplish, and she was mostly right in that assessment. A fiercely competitive tennis and bridge player, she also ran several marathons including the New York Marathon, Marine Corp Marathon in D.C., and the Berlin Marathon, along with many half-marathons, the last one accomplished with a fractured tibia. Nearing the end of her life, when she overheard Pat arranging for hospice care, the ever-determined Laura said, “I’m not finished fighting yet.”

One of Laura’s greatest gifts was her availability to those she loved. Never too busy to help her friends, her children, or her friends’ children, she balanced checkbooks for her math-challenged friends. She fixed glitches on their computers or iPhones. She took time to listen, to take a friend to the doctor, to mourn with those who were grieving. Laura was a stalwart, attentive, and loyal friend to so many.

Laura is predeceased by her father, Taylor Jobe. She is survived by her beloved husband of 39 years, Pat Kelly; her son, Clay Kelly (Gilly) and her daughter, Kacy; two grandsons, Flip and Robin Kelly; her mother, Laverne Koletich; her brother Everette Dean Jobe; her sister, Margaret Jobe Laird; and 11 adoring nieces and nephews, and countless friends.

Pat, Clay, and Kacy are grateful to Dr. Debra Patt, Dr. Julie Sprunt, Dr. Thatakonda, Dr. Rebeka Fisher, Dr. Larry Tokaz, Dr. Mark Akin, Sarah, Lana, Kara, Erin and all of the staff at Texas Oncology for their loving care of Laura during her journey.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to organizations that were important to Laura: Paddles with a Purpose https://www.paddleswithapurpose.com (Laura’s cancer survivor sisterhood) or Austin Breast Cancer Resource Center. https://bcrc.org/donate/.

A memorial service will be held on September 6, 2023, 3:00 p.m., at Tarrytown United Methodist Church, 2601 Exposition Blvd., Austin, Texas, with a reception to follow in the fellowship hall. Services provided by Weed Corley Fish.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.wcfishnorth.com for the Kelly family.