Celia (Ludwig) Kelly Spokane

Celia (Ludwig) Kelly celebrated her 105th birthday Feb. 13 with friends and family members.

A daughter of one of Cheney’s early homestead families, Mrs. Kelly has lived most of her life in the Inland Northwest.

Her parents, Matthew and Josephine Ludwig, moved to the area from Iowa in 1894, when she was 3. Her father built the family home outside of Cheney on Depot Springs Road.

Mrs. Kelly lived there until she graduated from Eastern Normal College (later Eastern Washington University) in the 1920s.

She taught in two area elementary schools until 1927, when she married John Kelly. They moved that year to Fort Benton, Mont.

After Mr. Kelly’s death in 1929, Mrs. Kelly and her daughter, Josephine, moved back to the family home, where she took care of her parents.

After their deaths in the 1940s, Mrs. Kelly continued managing the homestead property, raising cattle and selling milk and eggs to neighbors.

She moved off her family land in 1992, at the age of 101.

Mrs. Kelly has one daughter, Josephine Shaw, Davenport, Wash., and two grandchildren

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