LeMars Globe-Post, July 8, 1937
~Miss Kathleen Kelley left on Thursday morning for a trip to Bozeman, Mont.
~James E. Kelley returned on Tuesday from a month's visit to points in California.

LeMars Globe-Post, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 1937
~Mrs. Bertha Inmann and daughter, Betty, of Los Angeles, Calif., are visiting in the home of Mr. & Mrs. James E. Kelley.

KELLEY Family Notes Below [done Sept 2011] comprised by Plymouth Co. IAGenWeb's Linda Ziemann & Mary Holub--including links to more of the family history

LeMars Globe-Post, December 7, 1901

James Kelley, who sold his farm in Grant township last fall to John Pagler for $70 per acre moved his family to LeMars on Thursday and has leased a cottage near St. James church and will make his home here. Mr. Kelley has been an industrious citizen for many years and it is pleasing to know that he can spend his declining years in comfort.

LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel, May 2, 1905

Mr. and Mrs. M. F. Keough, of Sioux City, and F. P. Kelley, of Denver,
Colo., were visiting at the home of their mother, Mrs. James Kelley over
Sunday.

Notes from researcher, Linda Ziemann--research done in Sept. 2011

QUESTIONS:
-WHO might be the mother to the child, Betty? **SEE BELOW ...MYSTERY SOLVED

FACTS FROM THE LETTER that was mailed to then Postmaster James E. Kelley in 1933:
-Girl named Betty was left mother-less when her mother, the supposed Ann Simmons, died in 1918.
-The writer of the letter said she was raising the girl, Betty, who was her brother’s daughter and the daughter of Ann Simmons.
-The brother of the letter writer was Harry Simmons.
-The supposed mother died in 1918 and her maiden name was not known.
-Ann Simmons told the writer of the letter years earlier that her father was at one time the postmaster in LeMars.
-The letter that was written seems to lend to the idea that Betty was a young child in 1918 at the time of her mother's death.

KNOWN FACTS:
-The Postmaster of LeMars for several years (1915-into the 1920s) was James E. Kelley.
-His mother was Ann Nee Kelley, who died in 1918. In 1918 at the time of her death the WPA records state she was 85 years old. This elderly Ann Kelley is NOT LIKELY the mother of the child named Betty. 
-James E. Kelley was born in 1871.  His obit says he was married in July 1909.
-James E. Kelley had no daughter named, Ann. 
-James E. Kelley and wife DID have a daughter named Kathleen K. Kelley, who was not born until 1914.

OBSERVATIONS:
-In July 1937 James E. Kelley made a month trip to CALIF and then about six weeks later, a woman and her daughter, named Betty, show up to visit in the home of Mr. & Mrs. James E. Kelley.  
-The visitors were from CALIF and the older woman with Betty has a different name than she did when the letter was written in 1933.  In four years time a woman could have a name change, because of another marriage.  And she moved from Dallas to California.  It sure could have happened that way without any problem.

RESEARCH ASSESSMENTS by Linda Ziemann:
-Searches for Harry  Simmons so far have turned up nothing.

-As I have gone over and over all of this (and I have scoured some Census records online, too) I keep wishing I could TALK to that lady from Dallas who wrote the letter and was raising Betty.  I would love to know when Betty was born and where???  Also what happened to the letter writer’s brother, Harry Simmons?  Where did he end up and why didn’t he raise his own daughter?  Where were Harry Simmons and Ann married? And were they actually married?  What caused Ann’s death in 1918?  All unanswered questions that will likely never be answered because there is noone to ask today in Sept. 2011.

-The letter does indicate that the grandparents were likely not aware of the fact that Betty existed and she was being raised by her father’s family.

Further Investigation from a "Viewer"--research done in Sept. 2016/MYSTERY SOLVED

As I read the letter sent to James E Kelly, Postmaster in 1933, I'm inclined to think research has been led astray by the fact that he was postmaster at the time.  I find that Familysearch.org reports the birth of Betty A. Simmons on 18 December 1917 to one Harry Simmons and his wife, the former Alice Ann Reese.  The birth is recorded as having taken place in Le Mars, Plymouth, Iowa, United States.  Betty would have been approaching 16 years of age at the time of the letter, so one could well imagine her interest in finding her grandparents.  

Memorial Cemetery, Le Mars, for one Alice Ann Simmons, born in 1898 and deceased 20 Jan 1920.  The decedent may well have been the mother of the child; her death accounting for Betty having been cared for by her aunt.  The LeMars Sentinel newspaper (January 23, 1920) does carry an obituary for the deceased, Mrs. H. M. Simmons—however, the content of the obituary is quite illegible on the old microfilm.

Further comments on Betty Simmons:  The cemetery record indicates Alice Ann, whom I suppose to be her mother, was born as a Rees in May, 1898.  The 1900 census of Elgin township conducted in June, 1900, listing the family of Edward J and Sarah A "Rees", and including one Alice Ann Rees age 2.  Both Edward J Rees and Sarah A Rees appear to have been buried in Memorial Cemetery, Le Mars, also.

None of this accomplishes anything for Betty's benefit at this time, but the mystery of her maternal ancestry may have been solved.  ~R. Stahlberg, Waverly, Iowa