Jonah Edward Kelley

The J. Edward Kelley Society administers two awards available to people associated with Kelley's alma mater, Keyser High School. The Ed Kelley Award, established the year after Kelley's death and awarded annually ever since, is a scholarship available to students who played varsity basketball or football at the school for at least two years. The Legion of Honor, established in 1984, recognizes graduates who distinguished themselves in their careers and others who have supported the school in some way.

Several structures have been named in Kelley's honor. Located in the suburb of Moehringen in the southeast corner of Stuttgart, Germany, is a former German military facility that was renamed Kelley Barracks and is today the garrison for Africa Command. The U.S. Army named a transport ship USAT Sgt. Jonah E. Kelley in 1947. When the ship was transferred to the United States Navy in 1950, it became the USNS Sgt. Jonah E. Kelley (T-APC-116). In 2006, legislation introduced to the West Virginia House of Delegates by Representatives Robert Schadler, Allen V. Evans, and Ruth Rowan, all of Mineral County, named a bridge on West Virginia Route 46 in Keyser in honor of Kelley. Construction on the "Staff Sergeant Jonah Edward Kelley Bridge" over New Creek began in November 2006. An Army Reserve facility at Fort Dix is named the SSG Jonah Kelley Center.

Aged 21 at his death, Kelley was initially buried in Margraten, Netherlands. On March 26, 1946, his mother, Rebecca Kelley, wrote a letter to the Quartermaster's General Office, the War Department, requesting that they bring her son Eddie home to be properly buried. After three years of frustrating correspondence with the American Graves Registration division, the Kelley family finally received permission to repatriate Ed's body through the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot. In December 1948 his remains were returned to the U.S. and interred at Queens Point Cemetery in his hometown of Keyser.

During intense house-to-house fighting on January 30, 1945, Kelley led a squad in repeated assaults on German-held buildings. Although he received two wounds, one of which disabled his left hand, he did not withdraw to seek medical attention but continued to lead his men. The next morning, he single-handedly sought out and killed a German gunner who was preventing his squad's advance before being killed while assaulting a second German position. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor eight months later, on September 10, 1945.

Sent to Germany, Kelley served as a staff sergeant with the 311th Infantry Regiment of the 78th Infantry Division. The division had been fighting for weeks to take the village of Kesternich, south east of Aachen, because occupation of the village would also give control of the nearby Roer River dams.

Jonah Edward "Eddie" Kelley (April 13, 1923 – January 31, 1945) was a United States Army soldier who received the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.

Kelley was born in Rada, West Virginia, on April 13, 1923, and grew up in nearby Keyser. He was the middle child and only son of Jonah and Rebecca Kelley; his two sisters were Beulah and Georgianna. A sports enthusiast, Kelley played football and basketball while attending Keyser High School and also participated in Boy Scouts and activities through his church, Grace United Methodist. After graduating from high school, he entered Potomac State College where he played on the football team until being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943.