Anytime I go to something like this, I find myself drawn to
the old books. I’m always on the look out for anything rare and unusual,
especially anything connected to local history or local authors. As chance
would have it, I found one such book Saturday in Peterman.
While going through the books in one of Peterman’s old store
buildings, I found a copy of Riley Kelly’s 1969 book, “In Search of Light.”
Published by Exposition Press of Jericho, New York, this slim, 48-page hardback
book contains 35 of Kelly’s award-winning poems. The original 1969 purchase
price of the book was $3, but I only paid 50 cents for it on Saturday.
Those of you who remember Riley Kelly will remember that he
was born and raised in Excel. During World War II, he served three years as an
enlisted man in the Navy and took part in the invasion of Okinawa. After the
war, he went on to earn an English degree from Emory University in Atlanta.
For 10 years – from 1951 to 1961 – Kelly served as a regional correspondent for The Birmingham News, The Mobile Press-Register and The Montgomery Advertiser-Journal. Many of his feature stories were published in the Sunday supplements of those newspapers, and he also published many stories as a freelance writer in various publications throughout the south.
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Riley Nicholas Kelly |
Kelly also served a number of years as the editor of The
Monroe Journal. His popular column, “From the Horse’s Mouth,” was published
each week on the front page of The Journal. During his time as editor, The
Journal won the Alabama Press Association’s statewide award for general
excellence a number of times, and the paper also received the Herrick Editorial
Award from the National Editorial Association.
Kelly was not the editor of The Journal when the popular
Centennial editions were published in the 1960s, but he was responsible for
much of the content in those two publications. Many of the stories in those
editions were previously published in earlier editions of The Journal under
Kelly’s byline. My favorite was his story about the wreck of the steamboat
Henderson at Claiborne, which supposedly sank in the early 1800s with a cargo
hold full of “barrels of fine whiskey, brandy and wines.”
“In Search of Light” was Kelly’s first book, but he went on
to publish three others. His poetry book, “Patterns,” was published in 1970.
His last two books, “The Human Way” and “Prize Cache,” were both published in
1974.
In the end, Riley Kelly passed away in December 2014 at the age of 88. He was buried in the Baas Memorial Cemetery, just outside of Frisco City. His home, The Kelly House, now serves as an event venue in downtown Excel.
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