My Mother

My Mother

Jacqueline F. Kelly

April 12, 1927 - May 9, 1998

My mother was born in 1927 in Washington, DC to immigrant parents. She went to public school and won a full scholarship to the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. While she was in college, she was engaged to Hector D'Larenzo. But she met my father through a meeting with all four of my grandparents and the rest is history.  

When she graduated form college with a BFA in Textile design,she worked for a short stint in NYC and lived in an all women's apartment complex in Greenwich Village. My parents married in 1950 and my mother became pregnant shortly thereafter.  Once it was obvious that she was pregnant, she had to leavee her job and she never returned tot he workplace again.  Instead, she raised 7 kids in Philadelphia while my father pursued his career in law.

My mother died first and her absence left a big hole in our family.  I remember asking my dad, "Who's in charge now that Mom is dead?"  He thought about it for a second and said, "I don't know. I don't really know.  Maybe Sharon."

with Heather

with Jimmy