Centenarian celebration

It’s not every day someone turns 100 years old.

Mac Kelly, a longtime resident of Portland, became a centenarian Feb. 8.

“I can remember a lot of things,” said Kelly, whose long-term memory is still sharp.

Kelly was born in Michigan. In his youth, his family moved to Celina, Ohio, for his father to pursue a job in the fox farm business. He attended a school in a rural area for four years, later switching to schools in St. Marys and then Celina before dropping out at age 16.

He jumped into the Marines in 1940, serving for just over two years as a driver. He recalls operating the Jeeps outfitted with large radios they used while traversing areas near the South Pacific during World War II.

Mac Kelly married Patty Jo Derringer on Nov. 3, 1945. They had two children, Gary and Edward Kelly — Eddie was delivered “a year and a day” after their first anniversary, recalled Mac — and eight grandchildren before Patty’s death in 2002.

In 1946, Kelly took a position at the Sheller-Globe factory in Portland and moved to the city. 

“At that time, you couldn’t hardly buy a good car. I had to either move or change jobs,” he recalled. “I just moved to Portland.”

Kelly worked in the press room and later with the screw machine, putting together steering wheel hubs out of 11-foot metal bars. He worked at the company for 43 years — he moved to different facilities as the industry shifted gears, ultimately ending up at the location in Harlan — before he retired from what was then United Technology.

For 60 years, he spent his weekends fishing and swimming at Dewart Lake near Syracuse. His 77-year-old son, Eddie, remembers how they used to water ski.

“We could take him water skiing, and he’d never get wet,” Eddie said. 

Over the years, Kelly’s vision and hearing abilities have deteriorated. (His grandson, Michael, noted screw machines were extremely loud and hearing protection wasn’t enforced in Mac’s time, likely contributing to his hearing disability today.)

But physically, he’s still mostly independent. He keeps busy doing chores around his home.

“I’m still doing my own housework — that’s why it (doesn’t) get done too (well),” he said with a laugh.

Despite hitting triple digits, Kelly maintains his own yard with his John Deere riding mower and two push mowers.

He gets around town on his trusty golf cart.

“He’s resilient. He stays busy when it would be easier to not stay busy,” said Michael Kelly, noting his active lifestyle. “He’s stubborn, but I think, some of the stubbornness is why he’s done so well.”

Most of the family now lives in Ansonia, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio. They surprised Kelly with a birthday party Saturday at American Legion Post 211 in Portland.

“He’s fun — he cracks me up,” said Eddie Kelly. “You can always depend on Dad.”