Lera Cleo (Brooks) Kelly (1904 - 1985)

Born 18 Mar 1904 in Lee County, Mississippi, United States

Ancestors

Wife of George Kelly Barnes — married about 1931 in Minnesota, United States

Died 28 May 1985 at age 81 in Oklahoma, United States [uncertain]

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Biography

Cleo Lera Mae Brooks aka Kathryn Kelly aka Lera Cleo Kelly was born March 18, 1904 in Lee County, Mississippi, United States.^[1][2] She was a daughter of John Emery Brooks and Ora Lillian Coleman.^[3] When she was nine years old, her family moved to Coleman. Her parents divorced and her mother started work as a hotel manager, subsequently marrying rancher and local political figure Robert G. 'Boss' Shannon of Paradise, Texas, in 1927.

Cleo changed her name to Kathryn before marrying her first husband, Lonnie Clyde Fry, at the age of 15. She gave birth to her only child, Pauline, in 1919.^[4] After two years she separated from her husband. She married again, this time to L. G. Brewer, but they soon separated and she moved to Fort Worth, Texas, with her mother and stepfather.

Her third husband was a bootlegger called Charlie Thorne. After a quarrel, Thorne (who was illiterate) was found dead with a typed suicide note. The judge looked past this and Kathryn was never convicted for the murder.

Kathryn was already an experienced criminal by the time she met George Kelly. Together they operated as bootleggers in Fort Worth. She bought him a machine gun and gave him the nickname 'Machine Gun Kelly.' Together they planned their various kidnapping schemes, including their successful July 1933 abduction and ransoming of Charles F. Urschel.

While on the run with her husband, Kelly tried to broker a deal with an FBI agent for a lenient sentence for herself and her mother in exchange for turning in George. This deal never went through, as the FBI captured her husband before they finalized it. Kelly, her husband, her mother and her stepfather, Shannon, were sentenced to prison as a result. Kelly and her mother were sentenced to life; Shannon was sentenced to 25 years; and George "Machine Gun" Kelly would later die in prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Kelly and her mother served 25 years together at a women's correctional establishment in West Virginia before being released.

Upon their release, Kelly and her mother Ora lived quietly in Oklahoma City. Kathryn changed her name to Lera Cleo Kelly and worked as a bookkeeper at the Oklahoma County Poor Farm, which was at that time a hospital and nursing home. Kelly died May 28, 1985. She is buried^[5]in Plot 3-1-76-1, Tecumseh Cemetery, Tecumseh, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States of America.

Sources

1. ↑ United States Social Security Death Index, Lera Kelly, May 1985; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
2. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for Lera Cleo Brooks Kelly (18 Mar 1904–28 May 1985), Find a Grave Memorial ID 35409674, citing Tecumseh Cemetery, Tecumseh, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, USA.
3. ↑ United States Census, 1910, Cleo L Brooks in household of Emery J Brooks, Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 108, sheet 2B, family 35.
4. ↑ United States Census, 1920, Lea T Fry in entry for Tony B Fry, 1920; Avoca, ED 192, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma, United States.
5. ↑ Burial:Find a Grave, database and images https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35409674/lera-cleo-kelly: (accessed 10 December 2023), memorial page for Mrs Lera Cleo “Kathryn Kelly” Brooks Kelly (18 Mar 1904–28 May 1985), Find A Grave: Memorial #35409674, citing Tecumseh Cemetery, Tecumseh, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, USA; Maintained by Cheryl Selman Gill (contributor 48175804)

See also:

http://www.paradisehistoricalsociety.org/machine-gun-kelly/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Kelly