Phyllis

Kelley

Like Studs Terkel himself, DeKalb County Historian Phyllis Kelley has spent much of her life working to preserve the stories of ordinary people for future generations. As a 1975 charter member of the DeKalb County Genealogical Society, Ms. Kelley took a leading role in recording, indexing, and publishing the county's cemetery and citizenship naturalization records. Due to her efforts, the many old documents hidden away in the DeKalb County courthouse basement became accessible to the public for the first time. Ms. Kelley has served as the first official DeKalb County Historian since 1989. She established the Joiner History Room (JHR) at the Sycamore Public Library, an archives and research center that contains official county records, local newspapers, large photo and postcard collections, and other historical documentation. The JHR now publishes a monthly journal of local history and is an invaluable historical resource for both professional historians and the public. Ms. Kelley has also presented dozens of programs on local history for community organizations and has contributed to documentaries on Lincoln Highway and one-room school houses. Both Mayor Frank Van Buer of DeKalb and Mayor Ken Mundy of Sycamore agree that their communities have "been enriched in many ways by Phyllis Kelley's enthusiasm for both learning and teaching history."