Mrs. Kelly Groseclose.
Burke’s Garden, Va., Dec. 8.
Mary Elizabeth Kelly, widow of Henry B. Groseclose, deceased, was born at Pearisburg, Giles County, Va., on November 9, 1844, and died at residence of her son, John Kelly Groseclose, at Blacksburg, Va., November 30, 1921, age 77 and 21 days.
She was married to Henry B. Groseclose, on Sept. 26, 1866, at the home of her father, the late Judge John A. Kelly, during latter’s residence at brick house on Carnahan (or Snavely) place, a few miles east of Marion, Va., in Smythe County, Va. The most of her girlhood was spent at Tazewell, Va., where her father was (during the civil war) engaged in the banking business.
In the spring of the year 1874 Mrs. Groseclose, with her family, moved to the late family residence in Burke’s Garden, where she resided continuously until a few days before her death, when she was moved to Blacksburg in the hope that a change would be beneficial.
Mrs. Groseclose was educated, in what was known as Prof. Radle’s slhool [sic] for girls at Wytheville, Va., before the civil war, and was in her earlier years, accomplished in music. She was an apt conversationalist, and delighted in company and friends.
She is survived by three sons and one daughter, viz: J. K. Groseclose, of Blacksburg, Va., F. A. Groseclose, of Tome Creek, Va., Rev. J. H. Groseclose, D. D., of Wichita Falls, Texas, and Miss Fannie Groseclose, of Burke’s Garden, Va.; also by five sisters and two brothers, viz: Mrs. Jos. L. Groseclose, of Salem, Mrs. H. B. Hull, of Chilhowie, Mrs. Robert and Mrs. E. H. Copenhaver, of Seven Mile Ford, and Mrs. V. B. Gilmer, of Lebanon, Va., Judge Jos. L. Kelly, of Bristol, and Jno. P. Kelly of Marion, Va. Mrs. J. R. Meek, deceased, and Mrs. martha M. Snapp, deceased, both of Burk’s Garden, were also daughters of Mrs. Groseclose, and Mr. John P. Gose, her nephew.
Notwithstanding her isolated home n the country, by means of booksm periodicals and the daily press, Mrs. Groseclose kept in close touch with the doings of the outside world, until within a few days of her death.
Her husband, the late H. B. Groseclose, was a retail merchant in Burke’s Garden, for about 35 years; and, for many years, his shipping point, and nearest railway station, was 35 miles south, at Wytheville. This was only changed when the N. & W. Railway Company extended its lines, first to Graham, and thence to Tazewell.
During all these years, the latch string at the Groseclose home in Burke’s Garden “hung out,” and no weary traveler was ever turned away. It was a favorite stopping place for traveling men, many of whom are now no longer on the road, and some of whom will, no doubt, be grieved to learn that Mrs. Groseclose is no longer “dispensing hospitality at the old stand. She was gone to a long deserved, and well earned, reward, where she has already heard the welcome words, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my bretheren, ye have done it unto Me.”