Vicky Leloie Kelly

Vicky Leloie Kelly was born February 17, 1949, in Canyon, Texas, to two (married!) teenaged students at West Texas State Teachers’ College, Lavelle and Robert Bruce Kelly. The family lived in student housing from 1948-1950. Upon receiving teaching certificates the young family moved to Oklahoma settling both in Woodward and in the Oklahoma City suburb of Britton, near Vicky’s great aunt and uncle, Bue and Dan Cooper. The senior Coopers had the only television (won in a raffle) in the neighborhood. Vicky loved to recount how she at age 4 or so would walk to Aunt Bue’s house in the afternoon to watch the cartoon “Beanie and Cecil” which Vicky called “Beanie for Kids.” It was through this relationship with Vicky’s paternal grandmother Tressie Simpson’s sister, Bue Cooper, and her four children, Clarence (better known as Dan), David, Dick and Diane, that a strong bond was established with the now huge Cooper extended family.

Soon the Kelly clan moved back to the Texas panhandle where Bob toiled at various jobs including insurance salesman, and Vicky enrolled at grade school in Lubbock. After first and second grades Vicky and her parents were back in Oklahoma in The Village. Vicky was angrily disappointed to be required to learn “that awful, new state song” which in no way was comparable to her beloved “Eyes of Texas.” [In a few years “that awful song” would become the centerpiece of many performances by the OCU Surrey Singers of which Vicky was a member and later director.]

After several semesters in the Oklahoma City School System Vicky was asked by her mother Lavelle if she would like to take singing lessons. “Well, I already know how to sing,” was Vicky’s spirited response. The training paid off when Vicky, as a freshman, was awarded the role of Daisy Mae (Skaggs) Yokum in John Marshall High School’s production of “Li’l [Little] Abner.” One of the highlights of the show was the spot-on impersonation of President John F. Kennedy by a fellow student. However, the entire performance was nearly cancelled when Kennedy was assassinated. But the students and faculty reasoned that “the President would have wanted the show to go on.” “Li’l Abner” did go on, but the JFK bit was judiciously dropped.

During her John Marshall years Vicky eagerly volunteered to usher at cultural events, especially concerts by the Oklahoma City Symphony under Guy Frasier Harrison. At one Pops concert the featured guest was Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. Vicky chose to go backstage to greet that great celebrity, but she was the only person in that lily-white audience to do so. Fortunately, a photographer from The Journal Record took the iconic snapshot of Louis and Vicky, of which she was so proud. Not once, but twice was that photo the “celebrity picture” on OETA’s Movie Club.”

Tragically, Vicky’s mother Lavelle died of breast cancer in January 1964 when Vicky was 14 years old. Her father Bob was working as a teacher at the time. He found solace and a new family when he wed special education teacher Elizabeth Ann (Paulson) Mohr in 1965. Vicky found herself with a 31-year-old stepmother, “Liz,” and two stepbrothers, Michael (12) and Kenny (10). That Household of Five lasted until Summer 1967 when Bob and Liz made the decision to move with the boys (whom Bob had adopted, renamed “Kelly”) to Las Vegas, Nevada, where two schoolteachers could earn a decent living wage. Vicky was left in Oklahoma City where she enrolled at Oklahoma City University in Fall 1967, living in brand-new Walker Hall Women’s Dormitory and studying Voice in the studio of Inez Silberg.

Vicky flourished among the future star-studded environment at OCU, appearing in numerous operas and musical theatre productions. One notable role, because it would create repercussions throughout her life, was that of “Marguerite” in Charles [pronounced “Sharl”] Gounod’s [pronounced Goo-Know] “Faust.” In that opera, Marguerite’s love interest is named Siebel [pronounced See-Bell] and was played by the statuesque mezzo-soprano Sheila Smith. To explain, “Siebel” is a “trouser role” or “pants part,” a male character portrayed by a woman. A friend gifted Vicky her first white male Toy Poodle about this time, and naturally the dog was given the name of Siebel. When Siebel #1 died of a tooth infection and was replaced by a white female Toy Poodle, the new pup was also christened Siebel —because it’s a pant part. Siebel #4 is currently confused because she misses her “Mama.”

OCU awarded Vicky a Bachelor’s degree in 1971 and her Master’s degree in 1974. One of Vicky’s prized accomplishments was finishing runner-up for three consecutive years in the New York Metropolitan Opera’s regional competition. She earned money to pay for her graduate studies as a substitute teacher in the Oklahoma City Public Schools and as choir director at the Disciples of Christ Church near Britton and May Avenue. While Vicky was supervising at a Disciples of Christ summer camp, some of her feisty youth determined that Vicky as a Methodist had not been properly baptized, so they grabbed her and threw her in the lake!

During her graduate studies, Vicky also “trod the boards” as an Ensemble member at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Wichita Theatre, and most notably at Starlight Theatre of Kansas City. While at Starlight Vicky appeared with Joel Grey and got to see his later-to-be-a-star daughter Jennifer Grey “before she got a nose job.”

Around this time a Circle of Friends formed which has lasted to this day. Joining with Vicky were Jeanie Cooper, Sue Wells, Kerry Robertson, Jane Jayroe, Barbara Berard and Marsha Mortimer. They would interact, especially gathering with their significant others to observe (and criticize) the Oscars and Tony Award telecasts, plus celebration of New Year’s Eve. Be sure to view the display of pictures, two of which were taken twenty years apart in the exact pose.

After her college years, Vicky sojourned to Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, California, returning to Oklahoma City in 1979 to be hired by OCU President Gerald Walker as part of the prestigious School of Music Faculty, a position Vicky would cherish for 33 years, retiring in 2012. Lasting bonds of admiration and appreciation were forged among the students in her studio and her faculty colleagues.

As mentioned earlier, one of Vicky’s duties was directing the OCU Surrey Singers. Numerous domestic performances were later enhanced by a contract with the US Department of Defense which financed the Troupe’s sparkling showmanship at military bases around the globe.

After her tenure with the Surrey Singers Vicky sought to improve her Italian language skills by spending eight summers in the city of Perugia in landlocked Umbria Province at the School of Italian Language for Foreigners, which incidentally was founded by Benito Mussolini. Undoubtedly, some of those who enrolled in Vicky’s Italian Diction class who did not apply themselves properly to their studies may have imagined a resemblance between their Instructor and that Fascist leader!

Another of Vicky’s unofficial jobs was as lecturer for the Civic Music Association of Oklahoma City. Whenever that membership organization would book a vocal performer for one of its five annual concerts at the Kirkpatrick Auditorium, Vicky would inevitably be called upon to deliver her well-prepared and much anticipated pre-concert luncheon spiel. It was at one of these presentations that an OCU alumnus congratulated her on her talk. Vicky surprised the admirer by saying, “Why don’t you call me?” He eventually did, and that led to their 27-year marriage on May 14, 1999.

In her retirement years Vicky relished her and husband Steve Graham’s trips downtown to hear the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and also their participation in the lively Insight Sunday School class at St. Luke’s Methodist. She enjoyed her subscriptions to Opera News, Classical Singer and The New Yorker, even consenting to peruse The Daily Oklahoman. Later she bought a Kindle device and read a huge number of books. An avid devotee of Facebook, she would spend hours checking its features but, I believe, rarely commenting other than to register a “Like.”

Having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Vicky amazingly avoided its debilitating physical effects thanks to her Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation specialist Dr. Gabriel Pardo and daily injections of the drug Copaxone. In her last couple of years Vicky became increasingly homebound, possibly due to encroaching Dementia. Vicky suffered chronic back spasms which defied chemical and physical analgesia during her final two and a half months. Vicky died peacefully in her sleep of a probable stroke, around sunrise on Friday, August 21, 2026.