Former Clovis All-Band member still enjoys life

Editor’s note: This installment concludes the story of Otis Kelley, 98, who was 16 and a member of the Clovis Schools All-Band in 1924. He wrote the following in response to a column published Nov. 5, 2006, about the band. It has been edited for clarity and style.

I went to Clovis for the sixth grade at Eugene Field School, Sixth and Axtell, living with my uncle and aunt. My parents bought a lot at 1217 Mitchell, and Dad built a house and it was our home until the death of my parents. At that time the seventh and eighth grades were called the Departmental, and located at the high school building at Seventh and Main.

My six years there were a very happy period of my life, good teachers and fine fellow-students. On May 19, 1927, 58 seniors graduated at a ceremony led by Supt. James Bickley and Principal Bob Marshall. I received the Citizenship Emblem. Vita Foreman, at the top in grades, received the Scholarship Award.

During the summer following high school graduation, I worked at the Railway Ice Co., making enough to pay my $439 tuition as a freshman at the University of Southern California. My parents were not able to support me financially, so I obtained a job with the university’s physical plant department working on the grounds, raking leaves, trimming shrubs, etc. I was paid 45 cents an hour.

In January 1928 the head librarian came by where I was working and offered me a job in the library that paid 50 cents an hour; so I became a part-time library assistant. I worked as many hours as was permitted and managed to eat, pay for a room just off-campus and save enough for tuition, etc.

So after arriving on the USC campus I went to the music building to inquire about the band. An audition was scheduled to see if I could really play the trombone well enough to be in the band. I was accepted and attended the next rehearsal. Soon afterward I was placed in the first chair where I remained for six years. We had a good football band, sometimes 150 members, and concert band of 75 members. I owe my success with these bands to the excellent instruction I had from Verdi Croft, our CHS band and orchestra director.

On June 29, 1930, Onetia May and I were married in California. With both working part-time, attending classes, we managed to get along. Later I became a full-time library assistant at $85 per month. In 1932 I received my A.B. degree. Our daughter Jean was born that year. I obtained an M.A. that year too.

In September 1934, I became a teacher in the Burbank (Calif.) secondary schools. At the close of the year, Superintendent Enyeart, who knew of my work on the USC campus, told me about the terrible disorganization of a junior high library and asked me to go there and teach one ninth-grade class and straighten out the library. I seemed not to escape library work.

In the spring of 1937, George Pepperdine decided to establish a church-related college. I was appointed associate professor of social science and taught a history class on the first day of the college in September 1937. The organization of 50,000 library books did not go well that first year, and President Batsell Baxter, knowing of my library background, asked me to be the college librarian and to continue teaching one or two classes each semester. I was with Pepperdine College on 79th Street in Los Angeles for eight years. Our son Bob was born in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1944.

In 1945 we left Los Angeles and moved to Lincoln, Neb., where I taught personnel administration in the College of Business and was assistant director of libraries at the University of Nebraska. The director of libraries was Frank Lundy, a former Los Angeles friend. Then, in 1948 I was asked to head the library school at the University of Kentucky, so we moved to Lexington.

In 1949, a friend left the position of university librarian at the University of New Mexico and I was offered the position. We did not think of ourselves as Kentuckians so we moved to Albuquerque.

After 24 years I retired and tried to become a golfer. Also Onetia May and I did a lot of traveling until she became sick and died on Nov. 18, 1999. Soon after that I sold our home and moved into the apartment here at Bear Canyon where I get meals in a common dining room, etc.

So! Here I am. I thank God every day for letting me keep moving at age 98.