Doris Weisiger Kelley

Doris Weisiger Kelley, 91, mother of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley and Dorothy Kelley Patterson, wife of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson, died Sept. 19 at her home in New Orleans.

Mrs. Kelley was born in San Antonio, Texas, on April 25, 1922, to Hood Daniel Weisiger and Emily Julia Pancoast English Weisiger. After she was orphaned at an early age, Mrs. Kelley was raised by her maternal grandparents. Growing up, Mrs. Kelley was an active member of First Baptist Church of San Antonio.

While working as a secretary at First Baptist Church of San Antonio, she met a young Baptist layman from Piggott, Ark., named Charles S. Kelley Sr. The two married June 6, 1942, and enjoyed 64 years of marriage until Mr. Kelley’s death in 2006.

The Kelleys moved to Beaumont, Texas, in the 1960s where Mr. Kelley worked as a mortician. Mr. Kelley was a managing partner of the Kelley-Hixson Funeral Home in Beaumont, and by 1965, Mr. Kelley became the sole owner of what had grown into the area’s largest funeral firm. Mrs. Kelley served alongside her husband in the funeral home business for some 40 years.

The Kelleys were members of First Baptist Church in Beaumont for 40 years until they moved to New Orleans in 2002. Once there, Mrs. Kelley began serving at First Baptist Church in New Orleans (FBNO) where she was known as a “prayer warrior” and committed supporter of Southern Baptist mission work. She was a very active member, attending Sunday School and worship at FBNO every week, until very recently when her health prevented her.

The Kelley family remembers Mrs. Kelley as a dedicated mother and grandmother who wrote weekly cards and letters to her children and grandchildren.

Her cards and letters were not only reserved for family, though. Mrs. Kelley frequently wrote words of encouragement to pastors, ministers and family friends and an untold number of birthday cards, holiday cards, and greeting cards to children, adults and people of all walks of life that she encountered. Each Monday, Mrs. Kelley wrote close to 40 cards to members of the FBNO senior adult Sunday School class who were absent the day before.

In addition to her ties to New Orleans Seminary and Southwestern Seminary, Kelley and her late husband were long-term supporters of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mr. Kelley served on Midwestern Seminary’s Board of Trustees for 10 years in the 1990s and 2000s.

Mrs. Kelley is survived by five children, Dorothy Patterson (Paige), Kathy Kelley, Charlene Kelley Coe (Greg), Charles S. “Chuck” Kelley Jr. (Rhonda), and Eileen Kelley Turrentine (Steve); eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

There will be a visitation at 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 21; funeral service to follow at 11 a.m. in the Leavell Chapel of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 3939 Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans. A Funeral service will be held on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 2 p.m. at the Claybar Kelley-Watkins Funeral Home in Beaumont, Texas, visitation beginning prior to the service at 1:30 p.m. with family interment to follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in her honor to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary or Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.