Family, friends, journalists remember late editor Kelley
For as long as a family member can remember, April Suzanne Kelley had her sights set on becoming a journalist.
Kelley, who had served since August as Granite Media Partner’s Central Texas area editor, including the Taylor Press and Elgin Courier, died Christmas Eve of natural causes at the age of 36.
“She was really passionate about getting people’s stories heard,” recalled her big sister Nicole Gray. “She would stop and talk to anybody on the street and just kind of listen and hear their story ... Not pinpointing a person,
“
She was really passionate about getting people’s stories heard.”
— Nicole Gray, April S. Kelley’s sister but people from different backgrounds and different beliefs, trying to see what everybody was like, what the differences were and how they were similar.”
Kelley, who was born April 25, 1988, in Monroe, Louisiana, credited their late father, Lonnie Fay Kelley, with planting the seeds for her career through his love of the truth and adventure — as well as a generous spirit.
“He would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need, every single time,” Kelley wrote in an autobiographical article. “He cared more for others, even strangers, than anyone I have ever known.”
Best friend and roommate Wren Aiken said despite a strong work ethic that led her to spend long hours in the newsroom, Kelley was also a music and nature lover who did all she could to spend time outdoors, including walking Frank, their dachshund/ terrier mix, early in the mornings.
“She always loved being out of the house,” Aiken said. “She felt like being inside was a waste of time.”
Gray said Kelley was the first of her siblings to earn a college degree and worked nights to put herself through school before earning a Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana Tech University, with a focus on journalism.
Prior to coming to Taylor, Kelley worked in more than a dozen newsrooms across the country, including in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado and Wyoming for the Thermopolis Independent Record, filling both editor and reporter positions.
“One time she went all the way to Wyoming just for a job,” Gray said. “She loved journalism so much. She was like, ‘I am going to try it in Wyoming.’ She just packed up and went. That was the type of person she was. She was like, ‘Why not?’” From 2020-21, Kelley was chosen as a reporting fellow for John Jay College, part of the City University of New York, where she covered the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, as an editor and senior reporter for Community Impact.
Former Central Texas Area Editor Jason Hennington, who preceded Kelley in her position, said despite her brief tenure for Granite, she made a positive impact evident to all around her.
“Although I never worked directly with April, we talked frequently, and she had a great passion for journalism,” Hennington said. “When she became the editor, I knew she would continue the success of the paper with no problem. She will be missed.”
Dennis Levitin, a cartoonist for the Press, said he got to know Kelley better after he was injured and she volunteered to pick up his drawings for each issue.
“She was definitely an independent woman, and I admired that,” Levitin said. “She had a good work ethic, and she was organized. But she was also funny.”
Gray said becoming the editor for the Press and the Courier was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
“She was always very smart, very bright and very talented,” Gray said. “She did everything she could to get where she was supposed to be, which I believe was right there in Taylor. She really loved that place.”
Thomas Edwards, the executive editor of Granite Media Partners, said Kelley was a “true light who shone brightly” in the field of journalism, and her loss is keenly felt among the staff members at all 10 of Granite’s publications and its printing press.
“April was a true professional — always thinking of stories, always making deadline and very, very focused on getting the job done,” Edwards said. “She will live on in our memories.”
Survivors, according to Gray, include a daughter, Luna Ocean Ross of Lufkin, Texas; mother Linda Faye Herndon of Crossett, Arkansas; siblings Michael Kelley and wife Abby of McLoud, Oklahoma, Joseph Adam Kelley of Springfield, Missouri, Nicole Lyndsey Kelley and spouse of Waco, Texas, Matthew Schoonover of Wichita, Kansas, and Mariana Kelley and Troy Kelley of Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas.
“She was blessed with the guidance of two father figures, Lonnie Faye Kelley and Wesley Kelley, who both played significant roles in her life,” Gray said.
A memorial service is 10 a.m. Feb. 1 at Medders Funeral Home in Crossett.
