Elizabeth “Betty” McMicken Kelley

Former islander Elizabeth “Betty” McMicken Kelley died Aug. 15 at her home in Wyncote, Pa. She was 86.

She was born in Seattle on Sept. 28, 1917 the oldest daughter of Maurice McMicken and Constance Coleman. The family moved to Wing Point on Bainbridge Island in 1922. The McMickens were founding members of the Wing Point Golf and Country Club and longtime residents of the region.

She graduated from Seattle High School and then earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Washington in 1940.

During World War II, the family home on Wing Point served as the island USO club for military personnel in the region, especially the Bremerton Navy Yard. Many servicemen en route to the Pacific Theater met her and her two sisters on the dance floor.

She was trained in aircraft recognition by the army and served as a night spotter from midnight to 6 a.m. on a remote observation post near Battle Point on Bainbridge Island. She later also taught aircraft recognition.

By day, she and her sisters were employed at the Winslow Shipyard that manufactured minesweepers during the war.

She also wrote a newspaper column “The Island Girl,” depicting news and events on Bainbridge Island and the Seattle area.

She married Louis Erwin Kelley, a navy engineering officer attached to the destroyer USS Ralph Talbot, in 1942 and moved east in 1946 where she resided ever since.

She was fond of recalling easterners who wondered what it was like growing up in the “wild west” in the 1920s and 1930s. “How did you do it?”, they would ask, astonished.

“Well, we took the car and went to the market like everyone else,” she would reply with a willing and wry smile.

She was active in community volunteer work, local schools, the Women’s Club of Wyncote, and especially the Bookstore of Jenkintown, Pa., where all proceeds were donated to benefit the Abington Public Library. She was active in little theater and had numerous acting roles in productions with the Wyncote Players.

She enjoyed preparing presentations for the local book club and was a contributing patron of many charitable groups, which included the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Southwest Indian Foundation in Arizona.

She is survived by her sisters Alice McMicken Koch and Joan McMicken Wilt, both of Bainbridge Island, her three children Constance Kelley Sargent of Hamilton, VA, Maurice McMicken Kelley, of Wyncote, Pa., and William Louis Kelley of Geneva, Switzerland, and three grandchildren Sarah Elizabeth Sargent of Minneapolis, Minn., Matthew David Sargent of Berkeley, Calif., and Patrick Sàndor Kelley of Geneva, Switzerland.

A Roman Catholic memorial service was held Aug. 18 at the Immaculate Conception Church in Jenkintown, Pa., and her remains will be buried next to her husband, Lt. Cdr. Louis Erwin Kelley, USN Retired, in Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC.

Memorial gifts can be made to the Bainbridge Island Historical Society.