Dolores "Dee" Elizabeth Kelly

Dolores "Dee" (Dee Janusch) Kelly, passed away on Monday, February 3, 2025. Dee was born November 24, 1929 just in time to keep her mother from hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Her parents were Frederick and Clara Janusch, who lived on the west side of Detroit with her brother Frederick and sister Joanne. She started school at St. Mary’s of Redford until the Catholic Sisters suggested she transfer to the nearby public school, where they thought “her needs might be better satisfied.” In her grade school years the Detroit News had a competition for the best Father’s Day letter to a father. She won over hundreds of students and had her picture in the paper with the letter. She was a died- in- the- wool Tiger fan and often, in her early teens, took a city bus to the stadium, alone, to their games. She passed on several autographed pictures and World Series programs of the baseball stars of that era to her baseball pitcher grandson, Mat Dreves many years later. She entered Cooley High School where she was active in three sports, government and a sorority. In 1947 she entered the University of Michigan and decided on a career in dental hygiene. She joined Delta Gamma Sorority and became one of its officers. She was very active in campus activities, directing the annual Junior Class Play, dancing in the Sophomore Cabarae, in Detroit. She was invited to membership into the Scroll Honor society, which she joined. In the summer of 1949 at the urging of Patty Bay, a sorority sister, she came to Rex Terrace on Elk Lake to work the summer as a waitress. She met Charles Kelly, a friend of the Bay family, and found the two of them were both entering the School of Dentistry in September. They soon found they had much more in common than that and were married on September 2, 1950. She became the first dental hygiene student to be married in school after an acceptance by the Dean. She soon had to set another record by becoming the first student graduating pregnant and finishing her State Board examinations two weeks before her first son Michael was born. After graduation, the Dental Hygiene Dean gave her a playpen and a party. While living in Ann Arbor until her husband finished his dental degree, she was employed by two heads of the U of M Dental School Orthodontic Department as a hygienist in their private practices. In 1954 she followed her husband to Port Lyautey, French Morocco, Africa while he served a two year tour in the US Navy during the Korean War. After living with her parents until her husband found housing, she traveled with her two young sons. Jet planes did not exist so the trip required two days. A third son was born there. While in Africa she served as a Red Cross Gray Lady working in the Navy Hospital as a volunteer. In 1956 her family came to Traverse City and she became her husband‘s first dental hygienist while birthing two more sons and two daughters. Her life centered around her nine member family for the “growing up” years of the children with family skiing, boating, motorhome traveling, tennis and school activities. She stayed active in dentistry, helping her husband develop a different approach to the practice of dentistry, attending seminars and implementing changes that were carried forward in his practice. She was a team member on teaching trips to Russia and China when it first opened to the west. The Catholic faith was her basis for living and raising a family. She was active in the Christian Family Movement, Cursillo, and Marriage Encounter serving on their volunteer teams that they required. She sang in church choirs. She served for many years with her husband on the church Liturgy Council. She was a docent at the Dennos Museum from its opening for many years, was a member of the Old Mission Women’s Club. She taught religion to grade school children for 15 years in the Catholic school system and helped prepare migrant children for their first communion, teaching them in the orchards of the Old Mission Peninsula until the migrants no longer were picking cherries there. In 1994 she assisted Chuck on a dental team to Bolivia and Brazil to give dental care to their orphanages and street people. In 1994 she was made a Fellow of Northwestern Michigan College. She set up the first endowed scholarship for two dental students per year to attend the School of Hygiene at the University of Michigan. When asked what do you feel best you accomplished in your life? She always said raising my family. My husband, Charles, sons Michael Frederick (engineer attorney) (his wife Mary), Patrick Calvin (dentist) (his wife Mary), Kevin Charles (dentist) (his wife Nancy), Daniel Joseph (hotel and restaurant management) (his wife Jan), Theresa “Tracey” Dreves (accountant) (her husband Rick), Timothy John (Medical Doctor) (his wife Cindy), Colleen Andrews (nurse) (her husband Mitchell). Also surviving our 22 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren who will miss her dearly. A visitation to honor Dee will be held on Friday, February 14, from 5 to 7 PM at the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral home. A rosary will be led by her family and prayed at 6:30 PM. A mass of Christian burial will take place on Saturday, February 15, at 11 AM at the St. Francis Catholic Church with a visitation beginning at 10 AM. Burial will take place at a later time at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be directed to a charity of one’s choice. Kindly share thoughts and memories with her family at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com

Dolores "Dee" Elizabeth Kelly

November 24, 1929 - February 3, 2025