The American Flag flies in the Hampton Bays Public Schools this month for our neighbor and local hero, Marilouise Kelly.

Marilouise was born in Flushing, New York and grew up in Elmhurst Queens with her two siblings, Paula and Bobby.  Marilouise attended Mount Sinai School of Nursing and graduated with honors as a Registered Nurse.   Marilouise volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps and was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant at Fort Totten, NY.  She was assigned to care for solders returning from combat in North Africa.  In 1943, she was sent to England to work at the 231 Station Hospital, 60 miles north of London.  The number of casualties and those injured in the “Battle of the Bulge” was enormous and they were treated at that hospital. 

Marilouise married Gene Kelly when he returned from combat in Okinawa after having served with the 536 ATB.  They married on April 25, 1946 in St. Bartholomew’s Church and were blessed with seven children by 1947 - 3 boys and 4 girls.  She attended Hunter College and graduated with a Degree in Education.  In 1970 she became an accomplished assistant professor of the faculty of Nassau Community College School of Nursing.  There, she contributed as an author to textbooks that forever changed the lives of many nursing students and colleagues. 

Marilouise remains an active member of the Hampton Bays Senior Center and is also a respected member of the American Legion and VFW.  She attended the opening of the WWII monument and is honored in the Women’s Memorial for America’s Military Women in Washington D.C.