Assunta “Susan” Kelly

Assunta “Susan” Kelly, age 79 of Wayne passed Wednesday, August 28, 2019.

Susan was born in Jersey City to Raymond and Concetta “Connie” D’Amato. She was raised in Jersey City and attended Saint Dominic Academy in Jersey City with the Class of 1958.

Just out of high school Susan’s first job was as a bookkeeper with the Siperstein Paint Company in Jersey City. It is here that she met her future husband Eugene Kelly. They fell in love and married on July 9, 1960. In 1964, the Kelly’s moved to Wayne and Susan dedicated herself to raising her two sons. For over thirty years she worked as a tax preparer for friends and family and bookkeeper for several local small business. In 1983 she took on work as an office manager and bookkeeper for the Advanced Water Conditioning Company which was then in Wayne and where she worked for the next thirty years.

Susan was a collector and Precious Moments, Lladro, and Annalee were some of her favorites. She had a huge heart for those less fortunate and was probably the most generous person you would ever meet. She was a great Italian cook and renowned with family and friends for her awesome stuffed mushrooms. As the years went by her favorite recipe was ordering out. When she attended her daughter-in-law to be’s wedding shower all were to bring a favorite recipe to place into a binder. Susan’s recipe card had several local eateries phone numbers on it.

Susan was dedicated to her Catholic faith. She was a long time parishioner of Our Lady of Consolation Church in Wayne and always had her husband and children in tow.  At one particular Mass the priest, Fr. Wolsin, admonished his parishioners for sitting in the back pews and leaving the front pews empty. Well after that the front pew always had the Kelly’s in it. The only problem was that Susan had punctuality issues and was always coming up the aisle, with her family in tow, after the Mass had already begun.  

The Kelly family has many fond memories of vacations at their trailer in the Pocono’s, Disney World and pop-up trailer camping across the country. The camping vacations were very similar to the National Lampoon movie Vacation as they stopped at every conceivable roadside attraction. A stop at the world’s largest ball of twine and the location of Custer’s Last Stand where they stood in a field and were advised to tap their feet to keep the snakes away. Late at night the owner of a campground in Devils Tower Wyoming knocked on the pop-up door and asked Susan to either stop giggling or leave. Well this started her giggling even more. They did encounter a tornado once and Susan told the kids “well I guess were going to see Dorothy”. The tornado was so close it tore the mirror off their car. These two week summer adventures, guided by AAA Triptik Planners, usually had destinations in mind but rarely made it to them. Susan’s door was always open. Throughout the years her home was the hub of all family parties and celebrations.

Susan was the loving wife of the late Eugene Kelly (d. 2002); loving mother of Eugene “Gene Ray” Kelly of Wayne and Joseph Kelly and his wife Sharon of Pompton Lakes; cherished grandmother of Ryan and Evan Kelly; dear sister of John D’Amato of Fairfax, CA. She was the much loved aunt to many nieces and nephews, and dearly loved by her many cousins.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations to Eva’s Village 393 Main Street, Paterson, NJ 07501 would be greatly appreciated.