Politics / Law
Harry Kelly
1895–1971 · lawyer, governor of Michigan, state Supreme Court justice
One-legged World War I hero and Detroit lawyer who governed Michigan during the 'Arsenal of Democracy' years (1943–1947) and later sat on the state Supreme Court.
- Born
Ottawa, Illinois- Died
West Palm Beach, Florida
aged 75- Birth name
- Harry Francis Kelly
- Also known as
- Harry F. Kelly
- Detroit years
- 1924–1971
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Harry Kelly grew up in an Irish Catholic lawyer's family in Illinois, earned his law degree at Notre Dame in 1917 and lost his right leg at Château-Thierry in World War I, winning the French Croix de Guerre. After serving as a county prosecutor in Illinois, he followed his father, who had moved to Detroit to represent General Motors, and in 1924 joined him and a brother in the Detroit firm of Kelly, Kelly and Kelly. He was an assistant Wayne County prosecutor from 1930 to 1934, headed the Detroit-area Liquor Control Commission and was elected Michigan secretary of state in 1938. As governor from 1943 to 1947, he led the state through the peak of wartime production and the aftermath of the June 1943 Detroit race riot, and he set aside a postwar reserve fund. In 1954 he was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court, where he served until his death in 1971. He is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield; his son was the actor Brian Kelly.
Highlights
- 39th governor of Michigan, 1943–1947
- Michigan secretary of state, 1939–1943
- Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, 1954–1971
- Lost a leg at Château-Thierry; awarded the Croix de Guerre
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1971
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
Catholic cemetery in Southfield where he is interred.