By Scott Meeker
smeeker@joplinglobe.com
It’s probably safe to say that Larry Kelly knows more about trucks than the average 78-year-old.
It helps that he keeps some visual reminders around his room at the Silver Creek Assisted Living Center — nearly 300, actually.
Of course, Kelly is more specific than that.
“I have 295,” Kelly says as he walks around the room, where model trucks and cars are lined up on shelves, sometimes three deep. On one wall, the shelves are stacked from nearly floor to ceiling.
Kelly points out some of his favorites, often noting the make and model, how much he paid for it, or who gave it to him and when.
“That’s a 1955 Chevy Nomad station wagon. I’ve got two of them,” he says, pointing to a spot on one of his shelves. “That’s a ‘41 Chevy pickup, and that one down there is an ‘84 Peterbilt. I have three of those.”
There is the occasional car here and there among his collection — a 1917 Model T here, a 1969 GTO convertible there, and even a small Budweiser cart being pulled along by Clydesdales.
But most of his acquisitions have been trucks, from the four-wheeled variety to those with 18 wheels. Many of the trucks are emblazoned with corporate logos, from Braum’s and McDonald’s to Fed-Ex and Coca-Cola.
Kelly can pick out the truck that began his collection: a Wal-Mart tractor trailer that he purchased 10 years ago.
“I paid $25 for it at Wal-Mart,” he says. “Now, my family, they buy me a truck or two every year at Christmas and on my birthday. Different friends of mine have bought them for me. I just get ‘em one at a time.”
Kelly was born in Cassville in 1932. His father was Thurmond Kelly, who preached at Calvary Baptist Church and Forest Park Baptist Church after moving the family to the Joplin area. Kelly, who never married but has three sisters, says that he has spent most of his life around trucks.
“I worked at a filling station up there on 11th and Range Line,” he says. “It was called Wilkerson’s. I started there in 1955, pumping gas and changing the oil. We had started out at 7th and Range Line but had to move.”
While trucks are his primary interest, he doesn’t drive one. Instead, he gets around in style in a red 2002 Camaro.
“I got it in May of 2002,” Kelly says, pointing to a picture of himself behind the wheel that hangs on one wall. “It was sitting in the showroom when I bought it.”
He works two days a week, picking up and delivering death certificates for the Mason-Woodard and Hedge-Lewis funeral homes. It’s a job that he’s had for 26 years.
“I only do it two days a week, but sometimes three if it’s busy,” he says.
Kelly has been named the Resident of the Month for March at Silver Creek Assisted Living Center.
“Larry is a very nice guy,” said Lucy Strickland, activities director for the assisted living center. “He always comes up and gives hugs and kisses to the staff and lets us know that he loves us and appreciates all that we do.”
Strickland says that the residents of Silver Creek usually vote on the Resident of the Month award, but the staff recently started honoring those who have been there the longest. Kelly, she says, has lived there for about 10 years.
Kelly enjoys spending time with the friends that he’s made at the center, and hardly ever misses reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show” when they’re on. But there’s no mistaking the pride in his voice when he talks about his truck collection.
He can tell visitors a little something about each one — all 295 of them.
“It’ll be 297 by the end of the week,” he says. “I’ve got two more coming. I just keep getting them.”
