the lonG vIew pArtner spotlIGhts

The Long View Project would have been impossible without the financial and creative support of our sponsor partners. Over these 12 months, The Reader has featured brief profiles of these partners — highlighting their relationship to Longview and interest in its history. We thank them all for their support and confidence.

the Long View partner SpotLightS

With their sponsorship, the Cowlitz PUD celebrates its role in the history and development of Longview, and its vital part in the region’s economic health and quality of life today.

Providing Clean Power Since 1936.

People+Place Then and Now Sponsor Cowlitz PUD

the Long View partner SpotLightS

People+Place Sponsor Evans Kelly Family

Don & Andrea Cullen

People+Place Then and Now Sponsor Don and Andrea Cullen

the Long View partner SpotLightS

Community Connections: Kelly family among city’s great success stories

One name that’s stayed prominent throughout Longview’s hundred years is that of J.H. Kelly.

“My grandfather got itchy feet,” said Jackie Evans from her home overlooking Lake Sacajawea, “and being a plumber by trade, he came west looking for business.” In 1923 the Scotsman saw a road sign for the Planned City and figured it just might be that business opportunity.

The Kellys had migrated to Canada from Scotland and like many emigrants followed the timberline west, ending up in Prince Rupert, B.C. and then drifting south. “They were just building the St. Helens addition, and everybody needed plumbing,’ Evans said. Among the founder’s five kids was another John Henry Kelly, Jackie’s dad. “He was a scholar in overalls,” Evans recalled, “ and continued to build the business.”

Jackie was born in Kelso, and lived her first ten years there, moved to Longview and graduated from MArk Morris High School, later entering a nursing program at the University of Washington in the early 1960s, where she met her future husband, Dan. “The school was bigger than Longview, and the nursing program was tough. 800 people entered it and only 80 graduated.”

Dan and Jackie lived in California for a time, then returned to Longview where Dan bought into the Kelly business in the 1970s. “I was a young mother with a couple of kids and the people were incredibly friendly here,” she said. ‘I think this town is a well-kept secret. It’s a great size, with great community spirit.”

J.H. Kelly and his family have left a powerful legacy in Longview, (and a love of soccer brought with the family from Scotland and introduced here in the twenties). The Scotsman with itchy feet would be proud to know his company has grown beyond the region and is nationally known in industrial construction, mechanical engineering and services.

“I like Longview,” said Evans, “and this is our opportunity to celebrate it.” •••

Correction

With apologies to Jackie Evans and the Kelly family, we’re re-running this profile which contained a substantial error last month. Wars have been fought for less.

People+Place Then and Now Sponsor NORPAC

I mistakenly located their roots in Ireland, not Scotland! I can hear the swords rattling and the gravestones shaking in the peat. Perhaps influenced by the name Kelly, the Kelly green logo, and the annual St. Patrick’s Day shebang, I nonetheless regret and acknowledge the error.

I blame it on my own roots — being “Scotch Irish” hardly helps me recollect clearly. Perhaps when the smoke clears we can adjourn peaceably for Irish haggis and a dram or two of Jameson Scotch whiskey. – Hal

Calbom