His family lived in Titus, Alabama, but a few years after his birth, moved to Wrens, Georgia where Kelly grew up.
From July to September 1974, Kelly was in Tuscany preparing archaeological drawings of the ancient Roman town of Cosa, excavated under the auspices of the American Academy in Rome.
[3] Kelly and Varnell were well known for their many master plans and projects for public spaces, but on a parallel track they cultivated a private practice.
Writing in 1988, James Baily noted that Kelly was active "...in the most rarefied strata of the private sector, undertaking elaborate garden projects for such clients as Mary Morgan, Carolyne Roehm and Henry Kravis, Yoko Ono, Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg, and some dozen others.
Kelly died in 1993 at the age of 44,[5] after which David Varnell continued the practice, completing (among other projects) the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in New York's Riverside Park, dedicated in October 1996.