William Weber Johnson also referred to as: W.W. Johnson, Bill, Wilhelm
Elizabeth Ann (McMurray) Johnson also referred to as Anne
Lady also known as Mary Longwell and Mrs. Daniel Longwell
Sister =?
Brother =?
Friends = Bill and Ann Johnson or Rudolph and Polly Johnson
Jess = Jessie (Bowers) Kelly

1/1
Kelly to W.W. Johnson (1 letter). November 24, 1948

1/2
Kelly to "Amigo" (1 letter). December 16, 1948

1/3
Kelly to Bill (1 letter). January 3, 1949

1/4
Kelly to Bill (2 letters). February 1949

1/5
Kelly to Bill (2 letters). March 1949

1/6
Kelly to Bill (4 letters). April 1949

1/7
Kelly to Bill (5 letters; 6 leaves). May 1949

1/8
Kelly to Bill (4 letters). June 1949

1/9
Kelly to Bill (2 letters, 3 leaves). July 1949

1/10
Kelly to Bill (1 letter). August 1949

1/11
Kelly to Elizabeth Ann McMurray (1 letter). September 21, 1949

1/12
Kelly to Ann, and Maidcha? (2 letters). October 1949

1/13
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (4 letters). November 1949

1/14
Kelly to Bill (3 letters; 4 sheets). December 1949

1/15
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (3 letters). January 1950

1/16
Kelly to Bill (4 letters). February 1950

1/17
Kelly to Ann, and Bill (4 letters; 5 sheets). March 1950

1/18
Kelly to Bill, Lady, and "Old College Friend" (6 letters; 7 sheets). April 1950

1/19
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (6 letters). May 1950

1/20
Kelly to Billy (2 letters). June 1950

1/21
Kelly to Bill, Ann, and Lady (5 letters). Paul Miller to Kelly (1 letter). July 1950

1/22
Kelly to Bill (4 letters; 5 sheets). August 1950

1/23
Kelly to Bill (2 letters; 3 leaves). September 1950

1/24
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (4 letters and 1 envelope). October 1950

1/25
Kelly to Ann, and Bill (2 letters; 3 leaves). November 1950

1/26
Kelly to Bill (2 letters). December 1950

1/27
Kelly to Ann, and Bill (3 letters; 5 leaves). January 1951

1/28
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (4 letters; 5 sheets). February 1951

1/29
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (3 letters). March 1951

1/30
Kelly to "Sister", Ann, Bill, and Lady (6 letters). April 1951

1/31
Kelly to Ann, and Bill (2 letters). May 1951

1/32
Kelly to Ann, and Bill (3 letters; 4 sheets). June 1951

1/33
Kelly to "Sister", and Bill (2 letters). July 1951

1/34
Kelly to "Sister", and "Brother" (3 letters; 4 sheets). August 1951

1/35
Kelly to Bill (1 letter; 2 pages). September 1951

1/36
Kelly to Mary Longwell (Lady), and "Folks" (2 letters and 1 envelope). Oteo Kallir to Kelly (1 letter). October 1951

1/37
Kelly to Bill (1 letter). November 1951

1/38
Kelly to Bill (2 letters; 2 pages). December 1951

1/39
Kelly to Bill, and Lady (5 letters). January 1952

1/40
Kelly to Bill (3 letters; 5 pages). February 1952

1/41
Kelly to Bill (2 letters; 3 pages). March 1952

1/42
Kelly to Bill (1 letter). April 1952

1/43
Kelly to Ann, and Bill (4 letters). May 1952

1/44
Kelly to Bill, and "Friends" (2 letters). June 1952

1/45
Kelly to Bill (1 letter). Rudolph Johnson to Bill (1 letter). July 1952

1/46
Rudolph Johnson to Kelly (2 letters). August 1952

1/47
Kelly to "Friends", and Rudolph Johnson (2 letters). Rudolph to Kelly (1 letter). September 1952

1/48
Kelly to Rudolph Johnson, and "Sister" (2 letters). Rudolph to Kelly (1 letter). October 1952

1/49
Kelly to Rudolph (1 letter). Rudolph to Kelly (1 letter). November 1952

1/50
Kelly to Rudolph (1 letter). January 1953

1/51
Kelly to Rudolph (1 letter). Rudolph to Kelly (1 letter). February 1953

1/52
Kelly to Rudolph, and Ann (2 letters; 3 pages). Rudolph to Kelly (2 letters). March 1953

1/53
Kelly to Lady, and Friends (2 letters). April 1953

1/54
Kelly to Friends (1 letter). May 1953

1/55
Kelly to Ann, Bill, and "Good People" (3 letters). June 1953

1/56
Kelly to Rudolph (3 letters). July 1953

1/57
Kelly to Ann, Bill, and "Folks" (1 postcard, 3 letters; 4 pages). September 1953

1/58
Kelly to Ann, and Rudolph (5 letters). October 1953

1/59
Kelly to Bill, and Rudolph (2 letters). January 1954

1/60
Kelly to "Sister", and Bill (3 letters). February 1954

1/61
Kelly to [?] (1 letter). April 1954

1/62
Kelly to Bill (1 letter; 2 pages). May 1954

1/63
Kelly to Rudolph (2 letters with 2 envelopes). October 1954

1/64
Kelly to Friends (1 letter; 2 pages). November 1954

1/65
Kelly to [?] (1 letter; 2 pages). January 1955

1/66
Kelly to [?] (2 letters; 5 pages). March 1955

1/67
Kelly to [?] (1 letter). April 1955

1/68
Kelly to [?] (2 letters; 4 pages); Kelly to Rudolph (1 letter; 3 pages). Rudolph to Kelly (2 letters). June 1955

1/69
Kelly to Friends (1 letter; 2 pages). Rudolph to Kelly (2 letters). October 1955

1/70
Kelly to Friends (1 letter; 4 pages). November 1955

1/71
Rudolph to Jess [Kelly] (1 letter). December 1955

1/72
Jess to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson (2 letters; 3 pages). circa December 1955 or early 1956

1/73
John L. Paxton to Rudolph Johnson (1 letter, 2 pages). Rudolph to Paxton (1 letter). March 1956

1/74
Rudolph to Jess (1 letter). January 1958

1/75
Kelly to Ann (1 letter). undated

1/76
Kelly to Bill (8 letters; 10 pages). undated

1/77
Kelly to Lady (1 letter). undated

1/78
Kelly to "Friends" [either Rudolph or Bill] (1 letter; 2 pages, and 1 Christmas Card). undated

1/79
Kelly to Rudolph Johnson (3 letters). undated

1/80
Kelly to unidentified (4 letters). undated

Letter from Frank H. Wardlaw to J. Wayne Stark (1 page). June 6, 1977; Attached: Letter from Liz Johnson to Frank Wardlaw (2 pages). June 1, 1977

Letter from J.W. Runyon, Jr. to M. Wayne Stark (1 page). March 1, 1979

Letter from Irene B. Hoadley to Liz Johnson (1 page). August 24, 1979; Included is the exhibition catalog: American Primitive Paintings, [curated by] Otto Kallir. Washinton, D.C.: Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, 1958, and photocopy of "Biographical Note" annotated as being from the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, probably originally printed in an exhibition catalog.

Letter from Kay Hamilton to Irene B. Hoadley (1 page with envelope and 1 color slide). October 4, 1979; Attached is a handwritten note from Irene to Don [Dyal]. October 23, 1979

This collection contains 171 watercolor illustrated letters by H.O. Kelly, written to his close friend and biographer, William "Bill" Weber Johnson, his wife Elizabeth Ann (McMurray) Johnson, Mary Longwell (Lady), and their family between 1948 and 1955. These letters formed the basis for William Weber Johnson's research for Kelly Blue, a biography of Kelly, first published by Doubleday in 1960, with a foreword by Western writer Tom Lea.

A smaller group of fifteen letters by H.O. Kelly, and two in pencil by his wife Jessie (Bowers) Kelly, are addressed to another art collector and friend, Dallas lawyer, Rudolph Johnson. Seventeen additional letters by Rudolph Johnson, typewritten on yellow paper between 1955 and 1958 are included, addressed to Kelly, or, after the artist's death, to his wife, Jess.

Of interest too is a letter to Kelly by Otto Kallir of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York City, requesting some of Kelly's works to be displayed in an exhibition of American primitive artists to be mounted at the Galerie early in 1952. Included is Kelly's letter to Mrs. Daniel Longwell (Lady) asking permission to refer Kallir to her to view the painting she had just purchased from Elizabeth Ann McMurray. Also of note is a letter written by John L. Paxton of Fort Worth, Texas, in reply to Rudolph Johnson soon after Kelly's death in December 1955. Attached to Paxton's reply is a list of all the known owners of Kelly's artwork at that time, whom Paxton has written to in the interest of collecting funds to aid in supporting the then-destitute Jess Kelly.

In Series 2 copies of correspondence between Elizabeth Johnson, J. Wayne Stark, Irene Hoadley, and others relates to the bulk of the letters in this collection, an art exhibit at the Texas A&M University Memorial Student Center, a color slide of the painting "Penning Goats". and plans by Texas A&M University Press to publish an illustrated edition of Kelly Blue.

The tiny colored drawings found on Kelly's letters and cards to friends and family are a foreshadowing of the lovingly detailed scenes in his oil paintings. As a significant primitive artist, Kelly's paintings present a world of rolling, green pastures, tranquil blue skies, and solid farms and farming towns, also populated by a thick dusting of livestock, including wily goats, unpredictable donkeys, fine mules, and lively horses. The robust folk is reminiscent of Kelly's mother's German ancestors in Ohio, similar to those living in Fredericksburg, Texas, a town Kelly often visited for inspiration. As these letters so vividly attest, when Kelly sold a painting, it was the buyer's initiation into a warm friendship with the raconteur artist, not a mere business transaction.

2/1
Correspondence Photocopies. 1948

2/2
Correspondence Photocopies. 1949

2/3
Correspondence Photocopies. 1950

2/4
Correspondence Photocopies. 1951

2/5
Correspondence Photocopies. 1952

2/6
Correspondence Photocopies. 1953

2/7
Correspondence Photocopies. 1954

2/8
Correspondence Photocopies. 1955

2/9
Correspondence Photocopies. 1956

2/10
Correspondence Photocopies. 1958

2/11
Correspondence Photocopies. undated

2/12
Texas A&M University Correspondence Photocopies. 1948