Sheila J. Kelley, the longtime owner of Kelley’s Flowers on West Main Street next door to the Wellfleet Public Library, died on Oct. 10, 2024 when the Toyota Sienna van she was driving collided with a box truck on Route 6 in South Wellfleet. She was 63.
Among many expressions of grief, Naomi Czekaj-Robbins, assistant director of the library, said that Sheila was “the irreplaceable soul of the community.”
Her death came nearly 21 years after her husband, David Perry, was killed in an early-morning collision on Route 3 in Plymouth on his way to work at the Boston Flower Exchange.
The daughter of Jack and Ann Kelley, Sheila was born on Jan. 5, 1961 in Hyannis. She grew up on South Pamet Road in Truro in the same house where her father had been born. Her father was the Truro postmaster for many years, and her grandfather, Raymond Joseph, who ran a trash-hauling business, was Truro’s fire chief.
Sheila adored her grandfather and spent many hours accompanying him in his truck on trash runs. Her mother, Naomi said, “helped the local kids who had it rough, making sure they had food and a warm place to sleep.”
Sheila attended Cape Cod Technical High School and did her distributive education internship at the Harwich branch of Thayer’s Flower Shop. She was determined after that to succeed in the flower business.
After graduating in 1979, Sheila worked at the Cape Cod Five office in Wellfleet. In the evenings, she commuted to Boston to study at Rittner’s School of Floral Design. In 1982, she bought the house at 45 West Main St., where her parents had rented their first apartment together, and opened Kelley’s Flowers. She ran the business for the next 42 years.
The business necessitated regular trips to the Flower Exchange, where she met David Perry. They were friends for many years before marrying in 1993. “He was my soulmate,” Sheila told the Cape Cod Times after his death at 48.
Sheila “was very particular about her flowers,” said her sister, Peggy. “They had to be super fresh.” And she did not stint on her arrangements, which were “very generous,” Peggy said. “Flowers were her passion.”
“Sheila always had a friendly smile,” wrote Bettyann Amaral and Andrea Tedford of the Boston Flower Exchange in an online tribute. “She was always kind, and always thoughtful.”
“Sheila gave so much of her spirit and herself to her work,” Wellfleet Library Director Jennifer Wertkin said. “She decorated all of Wellfleet with her flowers.”
“It was never about the money,” wrote Jean Segara in an online remembrance. “She usually undercharged us.”
Former Wellfleet Police Sgt. Bill Brazile and Sheila became partners in recent years, and together they carried on Sheila’s long commitment to caring for golden retrievers. “The most important things for Sheila,” said Peggy, “were her family, her flowers, and her dogs, and not necessarily in that order.”
Sheila is survived by her partner, Bill Brazile, and his mother, Margie Brazile, of Eastham; her mother, Ann Kelley of Truro; her sister, Peggy Dahill of Eastham; her nephew, T.K. Dahill of Eastham; and two-year-old Tucker, the last of her golden retrievers.
She was predeceased by her husband, David Perry; her father, Jack Kelley; and her brother-in-law, Tom Dahill.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Route 6 in Wellfleet.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Sheila’s honor can be made to Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue at 10 Chapin Road, Hudson 01749.
