July 1, 2025

Linn County News

Published July 2, 2025

Kelly Kehl, age 87, of Mound City, Kan., passed away Saturday, June 28, 2025, at his rural Mound City home. 

Kelly was born March 25, 1938, south of Parker, Kan., to Keith (Tom) Emerson Kehl and Helen Edith (Giffin) Kehl. Kelly attended elementary school in Lawrence, Kan., before the family moved to Blue Mound, Kan., in 1946. He worked in his teen years mowing at the Pleasant View Cemetery and a variety of other jobs. In high school he played football and basketball, graduating in 1956. Oct. 18, 1959, Kelly and Maribeth Maxine West were married in Mound City, Kan., followed by the birth of their two children, daughter Melissa, and son, Kris. In 1966, the family made Mound City, Kan., their home.

Kelly worked for a surveying company, an elevator company, as a bulldozer operator for his father-in-law, Bernard West, and in 1968 returned to the elevator industry where he worked for several elevator companies and was a member of the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local #12, until he retired in 1996. Kelly liked hunting (quail, deer, elk), trout fishing, and camping in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. He spent many hours caring for his Missouri Fox Trotter mares and their mule offspring and registered horse colts. In later years he enjoyed having coffee with “the guys” at Everybody’s in Mound City. 

Survivors include his partner in life, Maribeth Kehl of Mound City; daughter, Melissa (Marshall) Toburen of Kansas City, Kan., son, Kris (Dina) Kehl of Odessa, Mo., granddaughters, Katelynn Kehl of Great Bend, Kan., Kelsey Kehl of Kansas City, Mo.; and sister, Kay Kehl Roberts, Columbia, Mo. In addition to his parents, Kelly was preceded in death by a grandson, Kade Kehl, and infant sister, Beverly Ann Kehl.

A graveside funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Thursday, July 3, 2025, at the Pleasant View Cemetery, Blue Mound, Kan. Friends and family will gather 10 a.m. prior to the funeral at the Schneider Funeral Home, Mound City Chapel. Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 2, at the Schneider Mound City Chapel. Memorial contributions are suggested to Blue Mound Alumni Association or the Mound City Historical Society. Online condolences can be left at www.schneiderfunerals.com.