On March 3rd of this year, Edmonds lost a long time pioneer; both of the City of Edmonds and the Edmonds-South Snohomish County Historical Society & Museum.
Milly, as she was affectionately known by her family and friends, was born August 30, 1915 in Edmonds to Orville and Herma Kelly. She was born in a house at 6th & Main Street, and lived in the family home at 6th & Dayton Street, until her marriage to Aubrey Howard Engels in 1936, a resident of Edmonds since 1919.
Her father, Orville Cure Kelly, came west in 1903 from Pike County, Kentucky at the age 10. With his father and mother, Vincent and Nancy Ann Kelly, along with two brothers and two sisters, the family settled for a short time at Chehalis, Washington, moving to Edmonds in 1906. At Edmonds, the younger children attended the Edmonds Grade School, the older sons worked in the logging business with their father. When Orville finished grade school he joined the business, V.J. Kelly and Sons, Loggers.
Milly’s mother, Herma Laney, was the daughter of William Smith and Minnie Kelso Laney, who came to Edmonds from Oklahoma in 1907. The Laney family was one of three families living atop the the hill where the Union Oil Company stood for many years (now the site of Point Edwards Condominiums), inside the Richmond Precinct. As there were no roads into town, the Laney children walked the railroad tracks to the foot of Main Street, and up the hill to the Edmonds Grade School on 7th at Main Street.
Milly grew up spending many days in the logging camps, between Tacoma and Seattle, with her family during the summertime. In the 1920’s the family logging business had a truck and would go right down Main Street to the dock. She recalled in her Oral History in 2004, they would “drive out on to the dock, and drop the logs; they would tip the truck at an angle so the logs would roll off the truck.” Because of the danger, “we were only allowed to be there very occasionally – our mother was a little fearful of it.”
Milly graduated from Edmonds High School in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression. She worked for a ladies apparel shop, Livingston Brothers in Seattle, helping to provide for her family after her father’s company was lost. On October 16, 1936 Milly married Aubrey Engels, son of Matt Engels, a former mayor of Edmonds. Milly and Aubrey started the Empire Electric Shop, and later joined in a business partnership with George Blough, for which they built a new building in downtown Edmonds. Here, they ran both a retail and electrical contracting business. With the introduction of the television in the late 1940’s, they became RCA dealers, therefore also adding a record store, of which Milly managed.
One of Milly’s great loves, was the Edmonds Historical Museum, which she was a part of since its inception in 1973. By 1985, she officially became director – she would hold this position until 1989. In 1998, Milly sat down with Carol Hahn and Renee Pollock to be interviewed about her time as the third Museum Director. “I was preceded by Vivian Smith, who had been Director for ten years, of very devoted leadership. It was really her life dedication. And then, her dedication became mine, and I felt very much the same way; maybe even more so, because I was a native daughter of the city.”
She was a highly valued resource for the museum with her extensive knowledge of Edmonds and the surrounding area. Her guidance, dedication and support of the Edmonds-South Snohomish County Historical Society & Museum created a lasting legacy for years to come.
Sources: Mildred Doris Engels Obituary; Edmonds Historical Museum Oral History Archives, 1998 & 2004
Photographs: Edmonds Historical Museum
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