Emma Kelly

Emma Thompson Kelly (December 17, 1918 – January 17, 2001) was an American musician. Known as the "Lady of 6,000 Songs",

Early life Kelly was born in 1918 in Statesboro, Georgia, to William F. Thompson and Sarah Pauline Cave. It was her mother's second marriage, her first husband having died eleven years into their marriage, from which Emma gained a step sister, Llewellyn. Emma was the Thompsons' second child, after Josephine.

Known as "Mrs. Emma", she began dabbling on the piano at the age of three.

Career

During World War II, Kelly played events for United Service Organizations at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia. including daily visits to Savannah. On Sunday mornings, she was guaranteed to be found attending her church, First Baptist in Statesboro, even if she had returned home from an event in the early hours. Kelly played the piano for the Sunday school and sang in the church choir. The bar was forced to close in 1991 after Odom squandered its earnings. Odom died that November, aged 43. "He could do you wrong. And he did me wrong," Kelly said in 1997. "But I miss Joe. I get a little teary-eyed thinking about him. He had a flair for coming up with good ideas."

In the fall of 1987, John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, accompanied Kelly to a Sunday church service in Vidalia, Georgia. Berendt recounted the day in a chapter of the book dedicated to Kelly. Clint Eastwood rewrote the script for the book's screenplay to include a scene with Kelly. The bar was named for "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)", a 1924 song by Jack Yellen, Bob Bigelow and Charles Bates.

Personal life Kelly was married to George Ross Kelly, a sign painter, for 47 years — from 1936 until his death from a heart attack in 1983 at the age of 70. She was interred in Eastside Cemetery in Statesboro.

Accolades and legacy Kelly was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1998. She performed at the event. The Emma Kelly Theater, on Main Street in Statesboro, is named for her.