Olive Long Kellum

Olive Long Kellum, a lifetime native Atlantan, peacefully took her last breath on August 27, 2012 after a long and arduous struggle with rheumatoid arthritis complicated by infection. She was born on November 22, 1932 at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. She was the oldest of four children born to the Rev. Dr. Nat G. Long and Olive Wills Long. Her siblings are the Rev. Dr. Nat Harrison Long, deceased May 15, 2006; Dr. James Theodore Long, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of Los Angeles, California; and Susan Long Baker of Columbus, Ohio. Olive experienced her earliest education under her parents’ guidance. She attended the Druid Hills and the Garden Hills Elementary Schools and graduated from North Fulton High School in 1949. She was taught piano from age 5 until age 16 by her mother, when Olive left home to attend school at the Wesleyan Conservatory, now Wesleyan College, in Macon, Georgia. She graduated from Wesleyan with the Bachelor of Music degree cum laude with a double major in piano performance and music education. She taught choral music at Roosevelt High School in Atlanta. She married Owen Kellum, a high school classmate, in 1954. After visits to Florida and New York City they moved to Durham, NC where both she and her husband attended Duke University. In 1956 Olive received the Bachelor of Arts degree at the same time Owen received the Master of Divinity degree from Duke. They then moved to Boston, Massachusetts where she served as an elementary school music supervisor in the Needham, MA public school system and Owen earned the Master of Sacred Theology degree from Boston University School of Theology. After their children were grown Olive returned to academia and attended Emory University’s Candler School of Theology (1988-1993) part-time while serving in full-time ministry at Kingswood United Methodist Church (1989-2003). She fully met the academic requirements for United Methodist Church certification in both Christian Education and Church Music as well as the requisite requirements for ordination as a Deacon in Full Connection in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (1997). As an ordained minister she had the honor and privilege of preaching at the Cumming First United Methodist Church on many occasions, performing the marriage ceremony for numerous couples, officiating at the funerals of church members, and frequently participating in the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. Olive married her teenage sweetheart, Elmer Owen Kellum, Jr. on August 17, 1954 when they were 21 and 22 years old respectively at the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta where both families were active. Olive’s father, the Rev. Dr. Nat Long, was the senior pastor there at the time, and Owen’s father, E. O. Kellum, Executive Vice-President of the Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation, was the church treasurer and a district steward while his mother was most active on the kitchen committee. Olive and Owen celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a gracious luncheon at the Swan Coach House followed by a reception at their home in Alpharetta given by their children and grandchildren in June, 2004. Olive Kellum is survived by her husband of 58 years, their children, Vera Lynn Sheets (Randall C. Sheets) of Mobile, Alabama, state honored middle school teacher of chorus and drama at Phillips Preparatory School; Glenn Owen Kellum (Celindy Johnson Kellum), Senior Associate Vice-President of Foundations and Corporate Relations at Emory University; and Natalie Kellum Allen, Choral Music Director at Thompson High, Alabaster, Alabama. She also serves as a Sweet Adelines international coach, choreographer and singer and recently accepted the directorship of the Sweet Adelines group of Birmingham, Alabama. Grandchildren are Kendall Natalie Allen, R.N., Ryan Oliver Sheets, medical student at UAB, Lindsay Claire Sheets, student at Birmingham-Southern College, and Dana Carroll Allen, student at Jacksonville State University; along with accomplished nephews, nieces and dear friends. During her professional life Olive Kellum was employed in her college years by the Mulberry Street United Methodist Church in Macon, Georgia as the Youth Choir Director, and soloist at the First Presbyterian Church, Macon. She was a part-time pianist for dance classes at Duke University, a choral music teacher in four elementary schools in Needham, MA, a volunteer choir director at the Headland Heights First United Methodist Church in East Point, Georgia and Adult Choir Director for the Covington, Georgia First United Methodist Church. She established a Music Studio in Griffin, GA, teaching voice and piano to children, youth and adults, and was a volunteer in the music ministry of the Dunwoody, Griffin First and Douglasville First United Methodist Churches during her husband’s and her ministries in those churches. She also was a pianist for the Fowler School of Dance and the Ballenger School of Dance, Covington, Georgia, Program Minister at Kingswood UMC and ordained minister of Music, Worship, and Pastoral Care at the Cumming First UMC. Honorary monetary gifts from every church she and Owen served were given to missions in Olive’s name by the United Methodist Women. Olive Kellum has served as a leader and officer in the North Georgia Conference Ministers’ Wives (later changed to Spouses), was a member of the Durham, NC Choral Society as both a soloist and chorister, a member of the Covington (GA) Civic Chorus, and guest soloist for special student choral presentations during the 1970s at the Dunwoody High School and the Northside School of Performing Arts. She has been a Public School Music Adjudicator in Newton, Spalding and Forsyth Counties for All-State Choruses, Library meets and Governor’s Honors Programs. Olive was a member of the auditioned Atlanta Symphony Chorus from 1971-77 singing 18 or more concerts each season under the direction of Robert Shaw. She also served as a soloist for eight performances in the Atlanta Symphony’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS under Robert Shaw’s direction in 1976. She sang the role of the mother in the Menotti opera “Amahl and the Nigh Visitors” under the direction of Billy Densmore of the Northside School of Performing Arts, and was the acclaimed contralto soloist in the 1977 presentation of Handel’s “Messiah,” Robert Shaw conducting. She was a member of the North Georgia Conference Board of Diaconal Ministry, 1985-97, serving as Registrar and managing the files and annual accreditation of all diaconal ministers. At age 13, Olive won the piano competition to play with the Atlanta Symphony as the piano soloist. She was selected as the Forsyth County Woman of the Year in Cumming, Georgia in both 1996 and 2003. She served as a delegate to the National Family Life Conference of the Methodist Church in Chicago in 1969. She and her husband were leaders on two different occasions of people on tour to Israel. She traveled to England with the United Methodist Heritage Tour and to California to attend the 1976 Robert Schuler Church Development Seminar at Garden Grove’s Crystal Cathedral. In 1981 she and her husband were delegates in the World National Conference of the United Methodist Church in Hawaii. Olive traveled to India, Nepal, Kenya and Liberia to study the mission work of the United Methodist Church. In addition, she has traveled to New England, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Montreal. Among her many talents and accomplishments, Olive will always be remembered as a consummate diplomat, forever able to sooth the most troubled individuals and help people to see the good in any situation. She will forever be missed, remembered and deeply loved by all of her family, friends, and those who had the privilege of working with her in any and every endeavor. A graveside service will be held on Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 1:00 PM at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta. The Kellum family will receive friends from 6:00-8:00 PM on Tuesday, August 28 at Northside Chapel Funeral Directors in Roswell. A memorial service will be held at the Cumming First United Methodist Church at 3:00 PM on Sunday, September 2 with a reception and refreshments to follow in the Fellowship Hall. In lieu of flowers, friends and family may give to any of the following: Wesley Woods Memorial Fund, Cumming First United Methodist Church Music Ministry or Wesleyan College.

Olive Long Kellum

November 22, 1932 - August 27, 2012