Longtime Worldwide Church member and Big Sandy community leader dies

BIG SANDY, Texas--Bill Kelley, longtime Worldwide Church of God member and popular Big Sandy businessman, died Dec. 20.

The 51-year-old insurance-agency owner, known to many former students and employees of Ambassador College and to present and former members of the Worldwide Church of God, died at his home of an apparent heart attack.

About 500 people, representing friends in and out of many church fellowships, attended Mr. Kelley's memorial service Dec. 22 at the Church of God Big Sandy's building.

Born Oct. 1, 1948, in Madisonville, Ky., Mr. Kelley was a 1970 graduate of Ambassador College, Pasadena, Calif. During his senior year at AC, he began working for Courier Insurance, Pasadena, and transferred to Big Sandy in May 1971 to represent Courier in servicing college and church accounts in Texas. He eventually bought a local agency, later renaming it Kelley Insurance. The Big Sandy company was one of 13 agencies he had owned in his lifetime.

Mr. Kelley met his wife, the former Laura Lane, while they were AC students.

He was involved in church activities and was youth pastor for the local WCG congregation.

He attended WCG services on Saturday and, on Sunday, other churches including Abundant Life Temple in Gladewater, where Mrs. Kelley said she and her husband went for "praise and worship."

Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Jennifer, of College Station, Texas; two sons, Kristofer and Kyle, of Big Sandy; his mother, Dorothy Kelley, of Madisonville; and a sister, Jan Park, of Kingwood, Texas.

Mrs. Kelley receives mail at P.O. Box 1127, Big Sandy, Texas 75755, U.S.A.

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