A sports enthusiast, Kelley played football and basketball while attending Keyser High School and also participated in Boy Scouts and activities through his church, Grace United Methodist.

After graduating from high school, he entered Potomac State College where he played on the football team until being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943.

On March 26, 1946, his mother, Rebecca Kelley, wrote a letter to the Quartermaster's General Office, the War Department, requesting that they bring her son Eddie home to be properly buried.

After three years of frustrating correspondence with the American Graves Registration division, the Kelley family finally received permission to repatriate Ed's body through the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot.

Located in the suburb of Moehringen in the southeast corner of Stuttgart, Germany, is a former German military facility that was renamed Kelley Barracks and is today the garrison for Africa Command.

Early on 30 January, he led his men through intense mortar and small arms fire in repeated assaults on barricaded houses.

Although twice wounded, once when struck in the back, the second time when a mortar shell fragment passed through his left hand and rendered it practically useless, he refused to withdraw and continued to lead his squad after hasty dressings had been applied.

At dawn the next day, the squad resumed the attack, advancing to a point where heavy automatic and small arms fire stalled them.

He was hit several times and fell to his knees when within 25 yards of his objective; but he summoned his waning strength and emptied his rifle into the machinegun nest, silencing the weapon before he died.