Brownsville, VT – Mary Lou Kelley passed peacefully into Heaven on November 28, 2025, where she was joyfully reunited with her beloved husband, Paul.
Born March 3, 1939, to Frank H. Brown and Marjorie Sheldon Brown, Mary Lou grew up on her family’s second-generation dairy farm in East Thetford, Vermont. She attended Thetford Academy, where she met Paul Kelley, beginning a lifelong partnership built on devotion, adventure, and a shared tolerance for each other’s quirks.
Mary Lou worked at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and later served as lodging manager at Mt. Ascutney Ski Area, where her organizational skills were rivaled only by her ability to tell you exactly what everyone on the mountain had been up to. She and Paul raised their two daughters in a log cabin in Brownsville, Vermont. Paul co-built the original Brownsville General Store with lifelong friend Rodney Dimick, but it was Mary Lou’s warm presence behind the counter that made it the town’s unofficial headquarters.
Mary Lou and Paul loved to travel, especially to Las Vegas, where they saw shows ranging from Siegfried & Roy to the Lipizzan Stallions. Their final trip included a donkey ride into the Grand Canyon for a 51-mile river rafting adventure. In retirement, they built strobe lights for airplanes and emergency vehicles as employees of Whelen Engineering-because retirement, to them, meant staying busy.
Mary Lou loved hummingbirds, shoes, Elvis Presley, prime rib, blue cheese, slot machines, and a 4 PM cocktail. She especially adored her son-in-law, Tom, often greeting him with lipstick, a cold beer, and a raised middle finger. She claimed she “didn’t do dessert,” which was a bold-faced lie. She could identify nearly every bird and wildflower on the mountain. Mary Lou was strong, independent, and stubborn in the very best ways-the sort of woman who would personally shoot a red squirrel off the roof if it dared threaten the robins nesting out back.
Mary Lou is survived by her daughters, Carla Kelley and partner Sherry Richardson of Springfield, Vermont, and Karen Melendy and husband Tom Melendy of Hartland, Vermont; her granddaughter, Chelsea Kelley McHugh and husband Joe of Windsor, Vermont; and sisters Corabelle Ammel and Rita DeGoosh. She was predeceased by her husband Paul, sister Barbara Sargent, and brothers Charlie Brown and Frank Brown Jr.
A private celebration of life will be held for both Mary Lou and Paul at a later date. In lieu of flowers or donations, Mary Lou requested that those who knew her take someone they love out to lunch-a final wish that was perfectly, unmistakably her.
Knight Funeral Home of Windsor, VT assisted with arrangements and online condolences may be expressed at www.knightfuneralhomes.com.
Click here to sign the guest book or honor their memory with flowers, donations, or other heartfelt tributes