Harry C Kelley

Harry C. Kelley - also known as H.C. Kelley or just Kelley passed away at his home on March 24, 2021, following a short illness. He was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma on January 4, 1925.

He spent his childhood in Missouri and Oklahoma and loved to tell people he graduated from Yale. It was Yale, Oklahoma grade school. After Pearl Harbor, he joined the Navy in 1944 in San Diego. He served as a coxswain in the Asiatic-Pacific campaign in Japan. He liked to say he drove the little boat from the big boat to the island. Upon his discharge he settled in Corpus Christi and decided to learn a trade. He became a floor mechanic working for several floor companies including Rogers floor company, Crews floor company and Allison floors. His work ethic has been an inspiration to his children and grandchildren - always get to work early, remember they are paying you to work and not play around and to treat the janitor of the company the same as the owner of the company. He met and married Delores Corrine Sims of Odem and they married September 11, 1951. They first lived in a trailer park off leopard street then he found a house on a corner lot in the koolside addition on Cordelia street where he has lived since 1953. After his wife passed in 1962 and his children were older, he was able to start his forever hobby of restoring antique cars. In 1968 he bought his first model a- a 1928 model a roadster with a rumble seat - which is now called Old Yeller. Harry Kelley was one of the founding members of the Coastal bend A’s club and his garage has been the focal gathering place for other members and car enthusiasts. He drove his cars in many parades from the buccaneer parade to the Rattlesnake roundup in Freer, Texas.

Most recent years you would find him and his son at swap meets. Harry is survived by his son, Patrick and wife, Tippy, of Corpus Christi; daughter, Kathy and husband, Jim, of Plano; grandchildren Brian Meadows of McKinney, Texas, Robert Meadows and wife, Monica of Jacksonville Arkansas and Sarah Palacios and husband Ryan of Corpus Christi; great-grandchildren Emily and Christian Palacios of Corpus Christi and Lisa and Delores Meadows of Jacksonville Arkansas; his brother, Corbett Kelley of Cushing, Oklahoma; sister-in-laws Marjorie Kelley of Cushing, Oklahoma and Thelma Sims of San Antonio. He was loved by many nephews and nieces and other relatives from the Kelley and Sims family. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, three sisters and one brother and one grandson.

A Visitation will be held on Monday, March 29, 2021 from 5:00PM – 8:00PM at Sawyer-George Funeral Home. A Funeral Service will be held on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 12:30PM at Sawyer-George Funeral Home with Interment to follow at Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.

Funeral Services Entrusted to: Sawyer-George Funeral Home, 12497 Leopard St. Corpus Christi, Texas 78410, 361-242-3205, www.sawyergeorgefuneralhome.com.