Myra Kelly

Myra Kelly (1875–1910) was an Irish American schoolteacher and author.

Myra Kelly, 1908

Life

Kelly was born in Dublin, she came to the United States with her father, a physician who established a practice on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.^[1] She attended the Horace Mann School^[2] and Teachers College, Columbia University, graduating in 1899.^[3]

Kelly taught elementary school at Public School 147 from 1899 to 1901.^[3] She produced three collections of stories based on her experiences as a teacher. Her character Constance Bailey teaches Irish and Russian Jewish immigrant children. A minor theme within her works is the changing character of the neighborhood and the displacement of Irish immigrant families.^[1] After the publishing of her "In Loco Parentis", US President Theodore Roosevelt wrote her a letter of appreciation.^[4][5]

Kelly married Allan Macnaughton in 1905.^[2] Prior to her death, she also wrote the romance novels Rosnah and The Golden Season.^[1]

Kelly developed tuberculosis and died on March 30, 1910, in Torquay, England.^[4] She was 35 years old.

Works

• Little Citizens, The Humours of School Life (1905)
• The Isle of Dreams (1907)
• Wards of Liberty (1907)
• Rosnah (1908)
• The Golden Season (1909)
• Little Aliens (1910)