Posted by ernie beach on October 13, 2004 at 15:43:20:
Marathon Legend, Johnny Kelley, dies at 97
Johnny Kelley, the two-time Boston Marathon champion and two-time Olympian, passed away on Wednesday night in a Cape Cod nursing home. Kelley ran the Boston Marathon a record 61 times, winning the race in 1935 and 1945 and finishing second a record seven times. Among his Boston Marathons, Kelley finished in the top 10 eighteen times, including a ninth place finish in 1957 at age 50. In 1993, the statue "Young at Heart" was dedicated in honor of Kelley on the route of the Boston Marathon in the Newton hills. The statue depicted a young Kelley clasping hands with an older Kelley finishing the marathon in 1991. Kelley came to personify the Boston Marathon and will live on in our memories.