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KELLY BROWN
Vol. 3, p. 1297, 1298
Book has photo

The aggressive forward movement of men who have not failed and do 
not purpose to fail, who have courageously gone forth to reclaim, to 
initiate and to build; to develop where it needs only development; 
to redeem what have been waste places; to found and upbuild a new 
empire -- this has been the glorious movement that has given to the 
United States the vigorous, inviting and opulent young commonwealth 
of Oklahoma, whose citizens rejoice in its vital strength, its 
manifold attractions and its splendid advantages. He whose name 
initiates this paragraph has been a resident of Oklahoma from his 
youth, has imbibed fully and effectively exemplified the progressive 
spirit that has made such marvelous development and advancement 
possible, has won for himself distinctive success as one of the 
representative younger members of the bar of the state, and has so 
proved himself and his ability as to gain popular recognition and 
definite prestige, as shown by the fact that in 1914 he was elected 
representative of Carter County in the Fifth General Assembly of the 
Oklahoma Legislature, in which he gave admirable account of himself 
and to his constituency. He is engaged in the practice of law at 
Ardmore, judidicial center of Carter County, where he is associated 
with two of his brothers, Henry H. and Russell B., under the firm 
name of Brown, Brown & Brown.

Though essentially and emphatically loyal to and appreciative of 
Oklahoma, Mr. Brown takes justifiable pride in reverting to the fine 
old Bluegrass State as the place of his nativity and to the fact 
that he is a scion of a family whose name has been long and worthily 
linked with the annals of American history. The lineage traces back 
through a distinguished and patrician course in England and there 
representative of the name were members of the nobility. The 
original American progenitors there incurred the displeasure of 
their sovereign and under these conditions came to America about the 
time of the Revolution and settled in Virginia, one or more having 
made their escape to the New World by becoming stowaways on the 
vessels that afforded them passage across the Atlantic. A scion of 
the family in Kentucky, Hon. John W. KENYON, who was for several 
years a representative of that state in the United States Congress, 
was a cousin of the father of Kelly Brown.

At Caney, Morgan County, Kentucky, Kelly Brown was born in the year 
1885, and he is a son of Allen K. and Eliza (LYKINS) Brown, both 
likewise natives of that state, where they continued to maintain 
their residence until their removal to Oklahoma, when their son 
Kelly was about twelve years of age. The father has become a 
substantial agriculturist and stock-grower of this state and he and 
his wife are well known and highly honored residents of Ardmore, he 
having celebrated in 1915 his seventy-first birthday anniversary and 
she her sixty-seventh.

Concerning their other surviving children it may be noted that Henry 
H. is engaged in the practice of law at Ardmore, as previously 
stated; John F. is engaged in farming and stock-raising in Kentucky, 
with residence in the City of Lexington; William M. is associated 
with the Ardmore Ice, Light & Power Company; Russell B. is 
associated with his brothers Kelly and Henry H. in the law firm of 
Brown, Brown & Brown, of Ardmore; Mrs. W. H. STACEY is a resident of 
Cannel City, Kentucky, her husband being an agriculturist and stock-
grower by vocation; and Mrs. M. Lykins maintains her home at 
Ardmore, Oklahoma, where her husband is a prosperous merchant.

In the schools of his native state Kelly Brown acquired his early 
educational discipline and in 1903 he was graduated in the high 
school at Ardmore, Oklahoma, as a member of the first class to be 
graduated after the establishment of this department of the public 
schools of the village. For a year he was a student in Hargrove 
College, at Ardmore, and thereafter he continued his academic 
studies for two years in the literary department of the University 
of Texas. In the furtherance of the discipline which has given his 
admirable equipment for the work of his chosen profession Mr. Brown 
was for nearly three years a student in the law department of the 
great University of Chicago, where he completed his law studies in 
1910. Immediately afterward he returned to Oklahoma and obtained 
admission to the bar of the new state, where upon he engaged in the 
general practice of law at Ardmore, where he and his two brothers 
who are his valued coadjutors now control a substantial, 
representative and constantly expanding practice, the same extending 
into the various courts of the state and having given to Kelly Brown 
the opportunity to win decisive and noteworthy victories in the 
causes with which he has been identified and to give him special 
prestige as a resourceful trail lawyer.

A young man notable for vitality, optimism and buoyancy of 
temperament, Mr. Brown has entered fully into the civic activities 
and public interest of his home village and county and is an 
influential figure in the local councils of the democratic party. He 
has served as secretary of the democratic central committee of this 
county and as chairman of the county election board. In 1914 he was 
elected representative of Carter County in the Lower House of the 
State Legislature, and his secure place in popular confidence and 
good will is indicated by the fact that he carried every precinct in 
the county with the exception of one that has a large element of 
negro population. He received a plurality of about three to one 
above the vote cast for the opponent who was his closest competitor 
in the election. In the Fifth Legislature Mr. Brown was made 
chairman of the house committee on public-service corporations, and 
was assigned to membership also on judiciary committee No. 1, and 
the committees on criminal jurisprudence, oil and gas, elections, 
fish and game, enrolled and engrossed bills, and capitol building. 
His home city being near the border of the well known Healdton oil 
and gas field and known as the commercial center of the Southern 
Oklahoma oil district, Mr. Brown has naturally taken, both 
independently and as a legislator, a lively interest in matters 
pertaining to the welfare of this district, and in the Legislature 
he was a staunch supporter of the oil-conservation measure that was 
enacted and in other provisions for the proper control and 
exploitation of the oil and gas industry in the state.

Mr. Brown proved a most zealous and effective working member of the 
fifth session of the Oklahoma Legislature, in which he introduced 
and ably championed an appreciable number of important bills, the 
major number of which had the strong approval of the governor the 
state -- notably those exempting farm products from taxation, and 
recreating the Supreme Court Commission, in accord with the views of 
Governor WILLIAMS. 

Among other bills introduced by Mr. Brown was that creating a state 
bureau of weights and measures, in conformity with an act of 
Congress that enabled Oklahoma to obtain from the Federal Government 
a laboratory equipment valued at $20,000; a bill relating to Probate 
Court procedure, this being a measure in which he is deeply 
interested; a bill creating a state cemetery fund; a bill making the 
carrying of a revolver or pistol a felony; a bill relating to 
licenses for the practice of law in the state; a bill establishing 
an accounting system for municipal corporations; a bill providing 
that applicants for charters for public-service corporations shall 
make a showing to the corporation commission that there exists a 
public necessity for such corporation; and a bill creating county 
boards of insanity.

Mr. Brown and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, in which he has served as steward and president of 
the Epworth League, and he is teacher of the Barraca class of the 
First Christian Church of Ardmore. Mr. Brown is a valued member of 
the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce and is identified with the local 
golf and country club. He is an active and popular member of the 
Oklahoma State Bar Association and also the Carter County Bar 
Association.

In the City of Paris, Texas, in 1911, was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Brown to Miss Leta May WOODWARD, her father being the editor and 
publisher of a newspaper at Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two 
children -- Martha Elizabeth and David Kelly.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, March 1, 2000.