[1] After a career of 18 years in education work, Kells entered the journalistic field in 1888, where she was active in Mississippi and Chicago until failing health compelled her to move to Roswell, New Mexico.

She served for two years (1899–1900) as corresponding secretary of the Mississippi Equal Rights Association, and during the Constitutional Convention of 1890, advocated the enfranchisement of educated women to counteract the illiterate vote in the country.

She served for a time as superintendent of Temperance Instruction for the Mississippi Union, and in 1909, was elected president of the State body, which position she held till her death in 1913.

[1] She retired from The Union Signal in 1894, to engage in business in the south, where the climate was more conducive to her health, located at Fort Worth, Texas.

In preparation for the next Prohibition contest, waged two years later, she conducted numerous campaigns throughout her native State in which she greatly aided the spread of temperance sentiment.