Honors

Memorials to Kelley have been constructed at the sites of both the new and old Keyser High School.

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In remembrance of Sgt. Ed Kelley, the J. Edward Kelley Society was established at Keyser High School in 1946.  The award is presented to an outstanding male student-athlete in each year’s senior class.  The Kelley award, an annually awarded scholarship, is available to Keyser students who played varsity basketball or football for a period of two years.  The Legion of Honor, established in 1984, recognizes distinguished alumni of Keyser High and those who are supporters of the school.

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The work includes full facility renovation of the Jonah E. Kelley USARC Training Building 2101 and OMS Facility 2102 and new construction of an Unheated Storage Building and Hazardous Materials Building along with incidental related site work.

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In 2006, legislation introduced to the West Virginia House of Delegates by Representatives Robert Schadler, Allen V. Evans, and Ruth Rowan, all of Mineral County, named a bridge on West Virginia Route 46 in Keyser in honor of Kelley. Construction on the “Staff Sergeant Jonah Edward Kelley Bridge” over New Creek began in November 2006.

Photo shows newspaper article on “Jonah Edward Kelley Day” in 1982 when Mayor of Rochester, Thomas P. Ryan, Jr., at center, presented citation to donor of Kelley scholarship to the Eastman School of Music, George T. McWhorter.

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A military installation in Germany has been named for Keyers Congressional Medal of Honor winner, the late Staff Sergeant Jonah Edward Kelley, according to Army newspaper, “Stars and Stripes.”

The Engineer’s quarters at the Stuttgart Military Post was renamed, “Kelley Barracks” at a recent dedication ceremony in honor of the Keyser soldier who was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest honor for heroic action in January 1945.  An arch over the entrance to the installation bears the legend, “Kelley Barracks.”

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Battery B renamed its arsenal for Ed Kelley on March 25, 1963.  Ed’s family were there to receive the West Virginia’s highest military aware, the West Virginia Distinguished Service Medal.

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George T. McWhorter had it in mind to write a story about those who had won the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration for valor above and beyond the call of duty.

He at first planned “an ‘unknown soldier’ motif for the book.” But as he scanned the records, he began to realize that it would be better “to present an in-depth study of valor through the exploits of a single man than to attempt a book on valor from a cross sampling of our honored dead.”

He did not at first zero in on Jonah Edward Kelley of Keyser, West Virginia. Rather, “Kelley picked me” when “I saw Kelley’s impish grin in a photograph,” wrote McWhorter.

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The Medal of Honor Grove at Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge Pennsylvania contains 52 acres of natural woodland and is designed as a living memorial to the 3447 recipients of our nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. A section of the grove is designated for each of the fifty states, Puerto Rico and District of Columbia.

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Originally built as Link Splice under a United States Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 2489) and was laid down on 29 January 1945 by the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation in Savannah, Georgia.  She was launched on 17 March 1945, sponsored by Mrs. L. W. Grothaus and delivered to the War Shipping Administration for operation by the Moore McCormack Lines on 28 August 1945.

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Assigned to North Atlantic operations, for almost a decade, she carried passengers and limited cargo from east coast ports, primarily New York, to northern bases, primarily Argentia and St. John’s, Newfoundland. In November 1959, her passenger service was discontinued; and she commenced cargo runs between the same ports which, with few interruptions, she continued for another 10 years.

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Statue built in Wappinger Falls, N.Y., in honor of the 78th Lightning Division.

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