John F. Kelly

John F. Kelly, 92, passed away on Friday, May 11, 2012 at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 8, 1919, John was the middle child in a busy Irish family of seven. As the family grew, his father and mother, Thomas P. and Sally Kelly, moved to Hollis, Long Island, where John attended St. Gerard's Elementary School and then Jamaica High School in Jamaica, Long Island. The Great Depression had a significant effect on John's youth and ambitions. Despite the hardships it presented, John found employment in retail sales after high school.World War II brought new challenges and John was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941. He served in the Fifth Army, 94th Ordnance, cataloguing and repairing small captured arms - pistols, rifles, machine guns, binoculars, watches, gun sights and precision firing devices. His regiment served first in North Africa and then in the Italian campaign, landing in Naples and moving north. After Italy and VE Day, his troop was sent by ship to the Philippines and then to Sendai, Japan, preparing for invasion. VJ Day intervened and the troops were sent home across the Pacific and across the country to New York, where John was honorably discharged. John again found work in retail sales, becoming an appliance specialist at Central Queens Electric in Jamaica. There he met the love of his life, Nora Meade Laitinen, a widow of World War II with two children, who he married in 1951. John followed Nora back to her home in Duluth, Minnesota, where he became a Standard Oil owner/franchisee. After 31 years with Standard Oil, John retired with Nora to Lake Worth, Florida, in 1982, where they lived until 2002 when they moved to Tallahassee. Nora passed away in 2008. John and Nora were members of St. Louis Catholic Church in Tallahassee.

John is survived by his two children, Karin M. Kelly of Tallahassee and Paul B. (Linda) Kelly of Vero Beach, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was the last of the seven Kellys to survive.

Visitation will be held 5:00-7:00PM, Monday, May 14, 2012 at the Culley MeadowWood Funeral Home, Timberlane Chapel. Funeral Mass will be held 10:00AM Tuesday at St. Louis Catholic Church with interment to follow at MeadowWood Memorial Park.

Arrangements are under the direction of Culley's MeadowWood Funeral Home in Tallahassee, Florida.