Mary Margaret Kelsay, 85, passed away at 9:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023 at Swiss Village in Berne. She was born on Sunday, Jan. 23, 1938, in Montpelier.
Mary Margaret grew up on the Kelsay family farm, a Hoosier Homestead. After graduating from Montpelier High School in 1956, she attended Earlham College in Richmond, completing a bachelor’s degree in home economics and education in 1960. After teaching for a few years, she continued her education at Purdue University in West Lafayette where she earned a master’s degree in home economics. In 1965, Mary began teaching at Huntington North High School where she spent the next 28 years helping students prepare to survive on their own after graduation. As part of her mission, she introduced students to wider gastronomical and social experiences. For example, she exposed them to unfamiliar foods like oysters and artichokes and revealed to them the finer graces of eating around an actual dining table set with baffling cutlery like butter knives and dessert spoons.
With her fellow home economics teacher, Velma Jean Gernand, Mary revived the Huntington North High School Junior Historical Society in 1975. The society was active in the first Forks of the Wabash Pioneer Festival that is now celebrating its 47th year. The Jr. Historical society also performed much of the initial hard physical labor involved in restoring the old buildings at the Forks of the Wabash historical site. In 1979 the society won the Young Preservationist Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which was presented to them by the Secretary of the Interior in Washington D.C. Upon retiring from teaching in 1993, Mary was free to pursue her historical interests and skills as her full-time occupation. She restored her grandmother’s house, literally taking it apart and rebuilding it safely and accurately with her brother David. Her interest in correct preservation spurred her involvement with Indiana Landmarks. She enjoyed attending Landmarks meetings and going on their sponsored trips to places like Savannah, where they got glimpses of sites not usually open to the public. Her home on Warren Ave is listed with Indiana Landmarks and is said to be the oldest house in Montpelier.
Mary was also an active member of the Montpelier Historical Society and worked on preservation of one of the first churches in Montpelier. Additionally, she served as a member of the Montpelier library board. Mary was proud of her Quaker heritage and often spoke of a great grandmother who was a Quaker “preacher” who rode on horseback from meeting to meeting.
Mary was also a lover of James Whitcomb Riley and could entertain a gathering by reciting verses from memory. Those who knew her well also found delight in the funny and less literary ditties that she could recite or sing.
She is survived by her sister, Ellen Louise (Allan) Lemaux of Charlotte, N.C.; four nieces, one nephew, three great-nieces and three great-nephews
She was preceded in death by her parents, Nixon Winslow Kelsay and Margaret L. (Bergman) Kelsay, a sister, Cynthia Sue Lampman, and a brother, Nixon David Kelsay.
A service to celebrate her life will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, at the I.O.O.F Cemetery with Pastor Les Bantz officiating.
Memorials may be sent to The Montpelier Historical Society to be used for the Church Exterior Improvement Fund, which was a very special and sentimental project to Mary, and/or to The Alzheimer’s Association.
Arrangements are being handled by Walker & Glancy Funeral Home in Montpelier.
Online condolences may be made at
www.glancyfuneralhomes.com.