Jeanne Stacie Kelley

Jeanne Stacie Kelley was one of a kind. Brilliant, quick-witted, and fun-loving. Tender-hearted, warm, caring, and kind. An amazing listener. A comforting presence. Deeply principled. Willing to speak up and advocate for her beliefs. A world traveler who delighted in quiet moments at home. A hard worker who often sacrificed sleep to get things done to her own impeccably high standards. Creative and talented at seemingly every project she undertook. An animal lover who cherished her fur-babies. An adored mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, friend.

Jeanne was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 18, 1946, the beloved daughter of John and Stella Lampos. Living with their parents in a classic Chicago bungalow, Jeanne and her older brother, Jeff, grew up surrounded by their close-knit Greek family. They loved the tight bonds they forged with their nearby cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  (According to family lore, they were less enchanted by their non-English-speaking grandmother shrieking their Greek names – Evgenia and Zaphiri – at top volume across the neighborhood to summon them home for dinner). Jeanne filled her days with family, friends, sports, ballet, piano and the oboe. Her lifelong love of animals began with her childhood pet, Brunhilda, an exuberant, mischief-making Boxer, famous for eating balloons and stealing at least one Sunday roast.

Jeanne graduated from Calumet High School in 1964, and soon married her high school sweetheart. She majored in math at Northeastern Illinois University, graduated in 1967, and began her teaching career in Barrington, Illinois. In 1972, she gave birth to her only child, Jacqueline, and took a break from teaching to stay home. When her marriage ended in a painful divorce, she picked up the pieces and returned to teaching while navigating the challenges of being a single parent. A few years later, she met the love of her life and future husband, Leonard F. Kelley, Jr., through close mutual friends. Jeanne and Len married in March 1975, settled in Connecticut, and Len adopted Jacqueline. Their family lived in the picturesque village of Guilford until a job transfer for Len prompted their move south to Plano, Texas, where she’s lived ever since. Despite many painful losses – Len’s multi-year battle with colon cancer; the back-to-back deaths of her father and Len in 1991; her mother’s passing in 2008; the death of her cousin, friend, and partner-in-crime Kathy Lapin in 2022; and a host of her own health problems over her last two decades – Jeanne exemplified resilience and radiated joy throughout her life.

Her multi-faceted career spanned five decades – first teaching, then bookkeeping, and then a leap to computer programming in the late 1970’s. After moving to Texas in 1980, she joined Texas Instruments, excelling as a strong manager. Her TI colleagues respected her as a brilliant boss, teammate, and friend, especially those deep friendships solidified during long days/nights/weekends spent on system installations and overseas travel to TI plants in France, Italy, and Japan. After many years at TI, she transitioned to consulting with Accenture, specializing in semiconductor supply chain project management. She wrapped up her career with several long-term assignments in the United States and abroad – including extensive time in Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and her hometown of Chicago. She kept working at a breakneck speed until her health problems intervened in 2008. After a few years of much needed and well-deserved rest and recuperation in retirement, Jeanne turned her talents to community service, volunteering in leadership roles, including both President and Treasurer, for the Assistance League of Greater Collin County. She was devoted to the ALGCC’s mission of philanthropic local service, and the residents of Collin County are better off because of her dedication, leadership, and commitment to service during her years volunteering with ALGCC.

Jeanne loved to have fun – spending time with family and friends over meals, games, theater, movies, arts & crafts, and fantastic trips. Her deep belly laugh echoing through the room was a joy to hear. Jeanne adored sports -- starting early in her school days and continuing through many years of weekends and nights devoted to playing tennis with Len and many friends. She was passionate about Bridge, Mah Jong, and board games, always playing to win with a delight for strategy, a strict no-table-talk rule, and a twinkle in her eye.

Many of her favorite activities involved expressing herself creatively. Jeanne’s handmade treasures were legendary: Christmas ornaments, handcrafted jewelry, blankets, needlepoint, crocheted and knitted creations, and beautiful cards that were mini works of art, just to name a few. For her grandchildren, there was simply nothing quite as a special as a gift “Made with Love by Gaga Jeanne.” She always had several projects underway and -- a perennial night owl -- would frequently lose track of time caught in the flow of her latest project, staying up until the wee hours of the morning with a rom-com or favorite show playing in the background and her cat, Rio, at her feet (most likely demanding to be petted). Even as her illness caused her hands to get shaky and her energy and stamina to fade in recent months, Jeanne enjoyed working on intricately designed sticker artwork and assembling Lego masterpieces. She finished a stunning Taj Mahal set the week before she died and started an architectural set of the Singapore Skyline – meaningful to her as one of the many cities she visited in her years overseas.

Jeanne’s intelligence, leadership skills, drive to succeed, and commitment to doing her best were all remarkable. She was an extraordinary woman whose contributions should be shouted from the rooftop. In every stage of her life, she formed lasting friendships that continue to this day. While Jeanne’s life was constantly full -- with work, hobbies, friends, and volunteering -- her family always came first. No matter how hard Jeanne was working, Jacqueline grew up knowing that her mom was there for her – supporting her, guiding her, encouraging her, and being her biggest cheerleader. As an adult, Jacqueline continued to treasure being close to her mom. In retirement, Jeanne prioritized time with her grandchildren, creating lasting memories with Aidan and Rehana -- playing whatever games they wanted, doing arts and crafts, building Legos, cooking together, watching them perform, and, most importantly, talking, listening, and just spending time with them.

For her family, what stands out most is how incredibly deeply our Gaga Jeanne loved, cared for and supported us. Her pride and joy shone through every single day. Her boundless love was truly the greatest gift we could ever receive. Words are wholly inadequate to capture the depth of that love. Ultimately, perhaps her most enduring legacy will be that she loved us unconditionally, not for accomplishments or achievements, but for who we are on the inside. It is our deepest hope and prayer that, as she lives on in our hearts, she continues to feel that same unconditional love from us. We loved, cherished, adored, admired, and looked up to her. While there is comfort knowing she is at peace and reunited in Heaven with dearly missed loved ones, her absence leaves a hole in our hearts that will never fully heal.

In her last several months, Jeanne valiantly fought the progression of congestive heart failure and end-stage renal disease, spending months in and out of the hospital, enduring dialysis treatments and pushing herself to complete in-patient rehab and physical therapy to regain her strength – getting strong enough to re-start using a walker after months of being in a wheelchair. When her heart finally gave out, she was not in the hospital, and, thankfully, she was not suffering from the fluid overload that weakened her over the preceding months. She was in the home she loved, with her furry “little man” Rio, talking to her brother who had known and loved her every day of her 77 years. As one of her doctors so eloquently phrased it, just like Frank Sinatra, even in her passing, Jeanne did things her way.

In addition to her daughter, Jacqueline Shipchandler, and her grandchildren, Aidan and Rehana Shipchandler, Jeanne is survived and mourned by her brother Jeffrey (Kathryn) Lampos; her niece and nephew Abigail (Aaron) McMahon and John (Laura) Lampos; cousins Michele (Sheldon) Abrams, Amelia (James) Corso, Dean (Joan) Santis, Jen (Corey) Fisher, Megan (Andy) Lubesnick, Carly (Samantha) Lapin, Carrie (Matthew) Ott, Craig Abrams, Beth Fisher, Maddie Fisher; several other cousins, grand-nieces and grand-nephews; and her “bonus” family -- Abeezar Shipchandler and Mansi Desai and their daughters Meera and Kiara, Tamim and Farida Shipchandler, and their families.

Her family expresses their deepest gratitude for the team of physicians, medical professionals, and companions who cared for her with respect and kindness. There are too many to name individually, but especially Dr. Alfred Levy and his lovely team at Supportive & Palliative Care, Baylor Scott & White – Plano; Dr. David Rawitscher and his colleagues at the Legacy Heart Center and the Congestive Heart Failure Clinic at BSW Heart Hospital - Plano (including Drs. Aasim Afzul, Nitin Kabra, and Gregory Milligan and NPs Lindsey Baxter and Blen Daniel); Drs. Scott Biederman and Hao Liu and their team at Advanced Kidney Care of North Texas; Dr. Julie Parekh at BSW Dallas Diagnostic Association; Dr. Adam Shapira and NP Katie Brown at Advanced Heart Care; the team at DaVita Custer Plano Dialysis Center; and everyone who cared for her at BSW Heart Hospital - Plano, BSW Medical Center – Plano, BSW Institute for Rehabilitation - Frisco, and Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Plano over the course of twelve hospital stays and two rehab visits since January. Her family is also exceedingly grateful for Elaine Horneman and others at Pharmacy Specialists/Home Health Specialists, who made sure she had the medical care needed to remain at home, and the team of companion caregivers at Home Instead Senior Care, whose steady presence enabled Jeanne to remain independent and in her own home during her final months.

A memorial service celebrating Jeanne’s life will be held at 4:00 p.m., Thursday, October 12, 2023, at Allen Family Funeral Options. For those wishing to join via live webcast: http://webcast.funeralvue.com/events/viewer/93157

In lieu of flowers, if you would like to make a gift in her memory, her family requests donations to one of Jeanne’s favorite charities; Operation Kindness at https://www.operationkindness.org, Hope’s Door New Beginning Center at https://hdnbc.org/contact-us, or the American Heart Association at www.hearwww.heart.orgt.org