Myra Kelly (1875–1910) was an Irish American schoolteacher and author.
Kelly was born in Dublin, she came to the United States with her father, a physician who established a practice on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.[1] She attended the Horace Mann School[2] and Teachers College, Columbia University, graduating in 1899.[3]
Kelly taught elementary school at Public School 147 from 1899 to 1901.[3] She produced three collections of stories based on her experiences as a teacher. Her character Constance Bailey teaches Irish and Russian Jewish immigrant children. A minor theme within her works is the changing character of the neighborhood and the displacement of Irish immigrant families.[1] After the publishing of her "In Loco Parentis", US President Theodore Roosevelt wrote her a letter of appreciation.[4]
Kelly married Allan Macnaughton in 1905.[2] Prior to her death, she also wrote the romance novels Rosnah and The Golden Season.[1]
Kelly developed tuberculosis and died on March 30, 1910, in Torquay, England.[5] She was 35 years old.