Kevin Sean Kelty
b. Jan. 20, 1975
d. Feb 24, 2011

Kevin Sean Kelty died unexpectedly on Thursday Feb. 24, 2011 from health-related complications; he was only 36. Kevin was born to Ted and Anne Kelty in Carson City and grew up in Lake Tahoe and Reno. He attended Reno High, the University of Nevada, Reno and found work as a specialist in geographic information services at various engineering firms in Reno, most recently Stantec Consulting. His real calling, however, was music. Kevin owned and played dozens of different instruments from guitar and banjo to piano and didgeridoo. His taste in music was awesomely eclectic, and he was relentlessly curious about all kinds of music whether new or old. Over the years, Kevin played in local bands and for small audiences; everywhere he went he generously shared his skills and his knowledge of music. Kevin will be remembered for his humor, his warmth and his dry wit. He is survived by his mother Anne, his brother Chris, his sister-in-law Hannah, his niece and nephew Ida and Leo, beloved aunts, uncles, cousins and a large number of generous, caring friends in the area and around the country. Friends and family are invited to pay respects on Tuesday March 1st, from 4-6 pm at Ross Burke, and Knobel, 2115 Kietzke Lane, followed by appreciations and remembrances at Kevin’s second home, Coach’s Bar, 1573 S. Virginia St., from 6pm onwards.

Update: For those interested in making a donation in Kevin’s name, one of his friends was involved in a charity called Note-Ables providing music programs and music therapy services for children and adults with disabilities. Please help them out, Kevin would love it.

update: youtube blocked this video “on copyright grounds,” but then I told them about my rights and they seem to have decided I have them. For now.

Leo, with the Keys to his new house

1126 Harvard St.
Santa Monica, CA, 90403

View Larger Map
Maximum chaos is in full swing, and I have been unable to find an free moment, or an open wireless network, to send out an announcement until now. On Friday, mom came home from the hospital to help move the heavier furniture, and the grandparents have done yeomens’ work cleaning and unpacking.

On Saturday, Ida went to a party with a bouncy castle and a belly dancer.

Ida w/Belly Dancer

Ida is doing great, developing her big sisterliness, buttressed by an extreme happiness relating to a new bed purchased for the occasion of moving into a new house. Leo is so-named because we like it, and Osborne was my mother’s father’s name. And yes, that acronym is LOLKelty to my internet cognoscenti.

We can’t say much about Leo, but he has his father’s sense for physical comedy. In the hospital on Wednesday, the pediatric resident came to see Leo, and brought with her a young medical student. The resident discovered that Leo needed a diaper change, and true to medical hierarchy, she made the med student do it. Later, when the attending pediatrician came by to examine Leo, she removed his diaper and exclaimed “My goodness, your Lo-jack is in your Meconium!” Aside from being a hilarious phrase in itself, it appears the med student had somehow managed to wrap the diaper around the small electronic device they attach to each infant’s foot to prevent him or her from being removed from the maternity ward. Leo promptly voided thereupon and Much Hilarity ensued, to the knowing approval of both parents.

Leo Sleeps.

Leo sleeps some more. Close-up.

In the Korean War, Ted served in the Navy as a cryptographer, working in the old bomb shelter caves of Yokuska, Japan to decipher and encode classified messages. He was incredibly proud of his time, and the experience of living in post-war Japan had a deep and lasting impact on him. He was honorably discharged to San Francisco in 1956.

From San Francisco, Ted answered an ad to work for the summer at the newly established Harrah’s Club in South Lake Tahoe, where he learned to deal and to oversee the gaming tables. He stayed at Harrahs for 16 years, advancing into management during the golden age and boom times of Tahoe resort gaming. Coincidently, Anne Stacy answered the same San Francisco advertisement, and the two met at Harrah’s Tahoe. They were married shortly afterwards in Zephyr Cove, honeymooned in New Orleans, and bought a home in Cave Rock where they hosted friends and family for many years. Ted often told entertaining and sometimes outrageous stories of traveling with and entertaining high rollers, at Bill Harrah’s Idaho ranch, at remote resorts in Mexico and Baja California, and in New Orleans and elsewhere.

Sons Christopher and Kevin were born in 1972 and 1975 respectively. In 1978, Ted moved the family to southwest Reno to join Del Webb’s Sahara Casino and oversee the building of the Sahara Reno. In 1983, he was asked to become Vice President of Operations at Sahara Tahoe, and the family briefly moved back to the Lake, before deciding instead to stay in Reno.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ted worked in the gaming industry in variety of management roles, from pit boss to surveillance expert to casino manager. His expertise and experience was widely recognized by his peers and co-workers, even though the industry was changing to a corporate-run entertainment business which often undervalued such experience and commitment. Ted worked at nearly all of the major institutions in Reno and Tahoe: Circus Circus, Eddie’s Fabulous Fifties, Atlantis, Gold Dust West, Harold’s Club, Horizon, and High Sierra. For the last several years, unwilling to retire, Ted worked in surveillance at Western Village, until the end of 2008.

Ted had many passions throughout his life. As a youngster he was a boy scout in Cheyenne, and later learned “Ki-Ann” Indian dancing, which he performed around the area, including for the governor of Wyoming. He loved fly fishing; taught himself to tie his own flies and would spend hours on the Truckee river and other rivers throughout the west. He taught himself crafts and construction of all kinds: welding, wood-working and cabinetry and built or repaired everything from soap-box racers and go-carts to furniture and chandeliers to bird-houses and toys to tables for Anne’s extensive Bonsai collection. He learned to fly small planes and he loved to golf, especially in the many Casino-sponsored tournaments he had the opportunity to participate in. He was an avid reader, and an especially big fan of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. He also loved flowers; don’t hesitate to send them.

Ted is survived by his wife and two sons, his daughter-in-law Hannah, his grand-daughter Ida, his sister and brother-in-law Sharon and Don Dendauw, his sister Linda Kessler, and his brother and sister-in law Patrick Murphy and Jayne Holtman.

A memorial service will be held at Ross, Burke and Knobel, 2155 Kietzke Lane, on Saturday March 7th, 2009 at 3pm. A reception for family and close friends will follow at his home.