The 2024 Billy Schrivner Distinguished Service Award is presented to Mike and Jan Kelley, who founded the Morgan Kelley Memorial Scholarship Foundation in memory of their daughter Morgan, who passed away Dec. 7, 2009.
Morgan was born with a heart defect. A 2006 graduate of Madison Academic Magnet High School, she was 21 and had completed enough credits to graduate from Lambuth University when she passed away. The family received her Lambuth diploma at the school’s 2010 spring graduation.
The Morgan Kelley Foundation continues to award scholarships that range from $2,000 to $4,000 annually. That scholarship is endowed and funded through a 5,000-meter race (3.1 miles) that began in 2010, the spring after Morgan passed away. Set up by friends and sorority sisters of Morgan’s, the scholarship is endowed through what was the West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation, now Community Foundation of West Tennessee.
A second scholarship, “Friends of Morgan Kelley,” is funded through an annual golf tournament. That scholarship originated through a group of Mike’s golf buddies who wanted to do something to honor Morgan.
“Our team had 5K runs and golf tournaments for the first five years after Morgan passed away, while giving scholarships through the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame and through other avenues,” Jan said. “The 5K fund for Morgan Kelley a few years after was endowed, which will allow us to offer this one scholarship yearly.”
Jan estimates a total of 25 scholarships have been awarded the past 14 years.
“Both of our daughters – Morgan and Shannon – were raised knowing that higher education would be important,” Jan said. “Knowing that we could help other young people and their families ease the stress of the cost of an education was very important to our family, and we knew that this would be an honor in Morgan’s name.”
Mike was born in Sonora, Calif. and moved to Augusta, Ga., where he completed his high school days. He accepted a scholarship to play football at Georgia Tech and was the 149th selection in the NFL Draft in 1982, going in the sixth round to Atlanta. He also played for the Memphis Showboats in the USFL and later in the Canadian Football League.
Mike and Jan met when he was a member of the Showboats and she was a student at the University of Memphis, where she earned a degree. She is presently operations manager at First United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson.
Jan said she and Mike have been able to keep up with several of their scholarship recipients.
“What a joy this is,” Jan said. “We are so thankful for these young people and for keeping us posted through Facebook and through friends of their lives. The success comes with the assurance that they are happy and balanced and are able in many ways to give back to their communities.
“In working with friends with fundraising and getting the funds safe and in place, we had no idea that we would be able to continue blessing through these scholarships for so long. In the beginning we were just walking in faith, and this journey continues in faith.”
Mike and Jan Kelley join Drae Bowles, Greg Goff, Audrey (Hazlehurst) Davis, Joe Holloway, and Joshua Holmes as the newest members of the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame, when the 38th class is inducted at 6:30 p.m., April 11, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
Brevin Knight, broadcast analyst with the Memphis Grizzlies, will serve as guest speaker.
For tickets and table information, call Beth Sedberry at 731.616.8558.
(PHOTO: Mike, Jan and Shannon Kelley)
