Long-time Gilroy resident, teacher, coach
Long-time Gilroy physical education teacher and coach Janetta Lee Kelley died Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003. She was 70.
Mrs. Kelley was one of the Gilroy Unified School District’s most respected teachers with 29 years of service. She spent a total of 35 years in education.
She was born in the Oklahoma dust bowl and lived and worked on the family farm until the family moved to Grover, Texas, where she graduated from high school in 1951. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Portales, N.M. where she attended Eastern New Mexico University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1955. She taught at junior and senior high schools in New Mexico and in Wasco and Hanford from 1956 through 1959.
After moving to Gilroy in 1964, she left teaching to raise her children. She reentered teaching in 1967 at Brownell Junior High School in Gilroy and transferred to South Valley Junior High in 1979 and remained there until her retirement in 1990. She and her husband did a fair amount of traveling until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1993.
She was a member of the Gilroy Presbyterian Church and enjoyed reading, gardening, training horses, walkng with her dogs and planning summer vacations, which took her family to camping spots throughout the U.S. Overseas trips included Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Avis; her children, Kalvin Kelley and Michon Kelley, both of San Luis Obispo, and Namra Pourroy and her husband Ken; her sister, Yvonna Goicovich of La Selva Beach; her brother, L.J. George of Vinson, Okla.; and three grandchildren.
Visitation will begin Friday at 8:30 a.m. at Habing Family Funeral Home in Gilroy. Funeral services will be held Friday, Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m. at the Gilroy Presbyterian Church, 6000 Miller Ave.
Memorials are preferred to the South Valley Junior High Girls Athletic Fund.
