Helen E. Kelley

Helen Elizabeth Kelley, an attorney, died peacefully amid her family on the evening of Saturday, September 12, 2026. Elizabeth, as she was called, was born on December 14, 1952 in Charlottesville, Virginia, the oldest child of Matthias Francis Kelley, Jr., and Helen Marie McDonough, both of Richmond, Virginia. She grew up in Richmond, where she attended Collegiate School and graduated from Huguenot High School. Elizabeth attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she studied French and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She always spoke fondly of her time studying abroad in Paris, France with Hollins and, later, living and working in Corsica and Caen, France, where she taught English. Elizabeth returned to the United States and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1979. She practiced law in Chicago, Illinois, where she met her husband, John Edward Horn. Elizabeth and John were married in Richmond on December 1, 1984 and raised their family in Oak Forest, Illinois, later relocating to Hinsdale, Illinois. In addition to raising their three children, John and Elizabeth formed a law partnership representing claimants in social security disability claims. 

Elizabeth is survived by her husband, John, and three children: Anne Horn Baroody and husband Sam Baroody, Elizabeth Parham Horn and husband Sam Freel, and John Matthias Francis Horn and wife Kaytee Horn. She is survived by five grandchildren, John ("Jack") and Helen ("Lena") Baroody, Penelope Freel, and Kassidy and Kaia Horn. She is also survived by her siblings Alix Kelley Miller and husband Al Miller, Matthias Francis Kelley, III and wife Margaret Kelley, and Maura Kelley Higginbotham and husband Tom Higginbotham, four nieces and nephews, and her cousins James and John Wilkinson.

There will be a visitation at Bliley's Funeral Home CENTRAL 3801 Augusta Avenue Richmond, VA 23230 (804) 355-3800 with further details to follow. There will be a memorial service at Vandenberg Funeral Home in November, further information will be posted.