Kelly, Edna F. (Edna Flannery), 1906-1997

Edna Kelly (née Flannery; August 20, 1906 – December 14, 1997) was an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1949 to 1969. She was the first woman to represent Brooklyn, New York in Congress.

Born Edna Patricia Flannery in East Hampton, New York, she graduated from East Hampton High School in 1924 and, in 1928 received a BA in history and economics from Hunter College in New York City. In the fall of 1928, Edna Flannery married Edward Kelly, a Brooklyn lawyer. In 1942, Edward Kelly was appointed as a judge on the New York City court; less than eight months later, however, he was killed in an automobile accident.

Only after her husband’s death did Edna Kelly seriously consider a career in politics. She reorganized the women’s auxiliary of the ailing Madison Democratic Club and served as a research director for the New York state legislature from 1943 until 1949. In 1944 she was elected to three terms on the Democratic executive committee of Kings County, New York, and joined Steingut as a co-leader of the eighteenth assembly district. On July 15, 1949, Kings County Democratic leaders chose Kelly as their nominee to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Brooklyn-based U.S. Representative Andrew Lawrence Somers. A heavily Democratic district, Kelly easily prevailed in the general election. Throughout her 19-year career in the House, Kelly was recognized for her expertise in foreign affairs, serving as the chair of the Subcommittee on Europe and retiring from Congress as the third ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She was also an advocate for women, introducing the first equal pay for equal work bill in 1951.

By 1968 the New York legislature had folded Kelly’s district into two new ones, one with a Black majority and the other going to the dean of the New York state delegation and chair of the Judiciary Committee, Representative Emanuel Celler, a 45-year House veteran. Rather than retire, Kelly mounted the first primary challenge against Celler since he entered Congress in 1923 but with her power base split, Kelly easilylost. Shirley Chisholm was elected in the new Black majority district. After leaving Congress, Kelly returned to her home in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and helped coordinate a Library of Congress oral history project with former U.S. Representatives. After suffering a stroke, Kelly moved to Alexandria, Virginia where she would pass away.