Alumni Connecti N - St. Vincent-St. Mary High School

Harold Jenkins.
When asked, what all did you do at
STVM? Al replied – “anything that needed
to be done – anything that I could do, I
helped them on.” Al has cleaned the field
house, disinfected the sporting equipment
at the end of the season, helped with
inventory and storage of the equipment
and more.
Al still attends all the sporting home
games and travels with the team to the
“away” games. He enjoys working with
Kevin McDonald.
When asked, “What is it about STVM
that made you stay?” Al responded, “I love
the teachers here. They are very good. I
love the people here. And most of all, I
really love the kids. They hooked me early
on – I keep coming back! Since my first day
here, the people have been so good to me.
The other schools may think they have the
teachers but they are wrong – the GREAT
teachers are here!”
Jerry Kelly
Professional baseball was the reason
Jerry Kelly’s parents moved to Texas and
that’s how she happened to have been born
there. Her father had signed with the
Chicago Cubs while he was attending
St. Viator College in Kankakee, Illinois, and
ended up in the Texas League.
Jerry was born in Turnertown, Texas,
the youngest of three children of Jimmy
and Angie Dalrymple. They grew up in
Kilgore, Texas where they attended grade
school, high school, and college. “I knew
from first grade that I wanted to be
involved in theatre. I was cast as the ‘lead’ in
our first grade play, ‘Little Bear’s Christmas,’
and I was Little Bear. There was only one
problem – my tail fell off just before I went
on stage, but my teacher ‘saved the day’
with a bobbie pin!”
In high school, Jerry was an active
participant! She was a cheerleader, member
of the Tri-Hi-Y Club, Assembly Committee,
Skating Club, Proficiency Club,
International Thespian Society, and was
cast in lead character roles in both her
Junior and Senior class plays. She loves
dancing and has taken dance lessons most
of her life. She admits that she still takes
out the “old tap shoes” on occasion to see if
she can “kick up her heels.” She says that
she was born with “rhythm in her bones”
and can still kick – just not as high! Jerry’s
favorite things are musicals – especially on
Broadway – and animals – especially dogs
and cats.
At Kilgore College, Jerry majored in
Speech and Drama and Business and was
chosen as “Best Actress” of the Drama
Department. Just out of high school, Jerry
was picked because of her dancing ability to
be a member of the famed Kilgore College
Rangerettes and was not required to go
through the try-out process. She was also
chosen to be a member of the Rangerette’s
“inside select group,” the Swingsters, who
are considered to be some of the best
dancers of the Rangerette line. Jerry
appeared with the Rangerettes in New York
City on the Ed Sullivan Show (“Toast of the
Town”), the Philadelphia Music Festival,
many of President Eisenhower’s
Inauguration Festivities in Washington,
D.C. (where they were introduced by John
Wayne), Soldier’s Field in Chicago, the
Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, many
times at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, and
numerous other performances throughout
the country. Jerry, today, is a lifetime
member of the Rangerette Alumni Group –
Rangerettes Forever.
One summer Jerry spent her
vacation in Akron visiting relatives – the
Dalrymples – her uncle and aunt and
cousins, Jack Dalrymple V49 (now
deceased) and Joan Dalrymple Hoover V56.
While in Akron, she met Jim Kelly V50 and
in 1961 became his bride. Following their
Texas wedding and her move to Akron,
Jerry became a supporter of St. Vincent
High School and an Irish Fan! “I had no
choice in the beginning,” chuckled Jerry.
She continued, “Jim kept talking and
talking about his great high school and his
great teachers and the great education he
received and the great spirit and the great
this and the great that!” Jerry can
remember thinking that there was no high
school that could be that great! Little did
she know that it was the same high school
that would someday take over her heart.
Volunteering has always been a
part of Jerry Kelly. “My parents instilled in
us that we are here to serve others and they
set a great example for us,” Jerry
reminisced. Jerry’s daughter, Teresa VM80,
was born in 1962 and when she reached
“kindergarten age” in 1967, Jerry was one of
the room mothers at King School and from
then on, beginning with Teresa’s first grade
at St. Vincent Elementary School, Jerry
never looked back. She served as both a
Brownie and Girl Scout leader for six years,
and was both a founding and charter
member of the St. Vincent Elementary
School Parents Association, serving as its
first secretary. She volunteered in the grade
school cafeteria for 9 years, chaired many
fundraisers for the grade school and was a
certified CYO volleyball coach. She was a
member of the St. Vincent Altar Society,
serving in many capacities, including
president. A little known fact about Jerry is
that for over 35 years, she and her close
friend, Marcia Zarembka, and their crew
have decorated the St. Vincent Church altar
at Christmas and Easter time and many
have commented that the St. V altar is one
of the most beautiful in the city at those
times. Jerry was also a member of Parish
Council and belonged to Fr. Berardi’s
St. Vincent Drama Guild. Jerry has been a
member of St. Vincent Parish for nearly 47
years and, in addition, worked at
Annunciation Parish rectory as a part-time
secretary/receptionist for 22 years from
1984 to 2006. The last four years (2002 –
2006) she was the Development Director
for the parish and Annunciation – St. John
School. She helped raise $216,000 in a
gallant effort to keep the school open.
Unfortunately, the school’s doors closed in
June 2006. At their final fundraiser in
March, 2006, Ann Simmons, President of
the school PTO, said of Jerry, “I would like
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