Mrs. Sara Joe McRee Steele Kelly

Mrs. Sara Joe McRee Steele Kelly passed away peacefully on January 3, 2026 at the age of ninety-one. She was born in Thomaston on October 4, 1934 to Sara Vining McRee (Thomaston) and Joe Boyd McRee (Watkinsville).

She is survived by her husband Ed Kelly (Thomaston), her brother Robert (Bob) McRee (Bozeman, MT), and her two children, Juli Steele Lloyd (Thomaston) and Clarence (Chip) Errell Steele III (Beaufort, SC). She is also survived by six grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.

Sara Joe was a medical technologist in Atlanta before marriage and was well known in Thomaston for her gift shop of many years, Southern Memories, LTD. 

She travelled extensively with her son and family in Europe keeping  journals and scrapbooks of her travels. Her hobbies included counted cross-stitch, gardening, primitive-style decorating, growing antique roses, watching old movies, baking, and spending time with family and friends. 

Sara Joe built two houses in Thomaston plus two authentic log cabins out of old tobacco barns. She made many memories in the 1960's and 70's on the family houseboat on Lake Lanier and family cabin at Bear Paw Resort in North Carolina. 

She married her childhood sweetheart, Edwin Lamar Kelly, at the age of 89. Her decline and illness in the past months was sudden and she will be missed greatly by all. 

Her memorial monument will be at South View Cemetery in the McRee-Vining family plot.

Fletcher-Day Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements. Condolences and remembrances may be expressed at www.fletcherdayfuneralhome.com.