Business, political associates praise influential attorney Dee Kelly Sr.

On Wednesday afternoon, from the pulpit of an overflowing University Christian Church, billionaire investor Sid Bass listed the attributes that made lawyer Dee J. Kelly one of the most influential citizens of Fort Worth’s modern era.

Competitiveness. Modesty. Tenacity.

“If a problem looked hopeless, Dee was a master,” Bass said of Mr. Kelly, who died unexpectedly on Friday at the age of 86.

“He would pry with leverage. He would cajole with honey … When ingenuity didn’t work, tenacity did. He was the most tenacious person you’ll ever know.”

But before a congregation that included former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the city’s civic and cultural elite, Bass focused most on the nationally renowned attorney’s loyalty.

“Dee defined loyalty,” said Bass, one of Mr. Kelly’s many high-profile clients and a close friend. “Dee owned the word loyalty. Dee’s loyalty was not sitting around and waiting to be called on. Dee engaged in battle in the name of his friends whenever he saw the need. In loyalty he had no peer.”

During the memorial service on the campus of Mr. Kelly’s beloved Texas Christian University, Bass, Dee J. Kelly Jr. and retired TCU Chancellor William Tucker drew frequent laughter while attempting to portray the power broker.

Mr. Kelly was a chronically impatient man who spoke with staccato rapidity and had an indefatigable work ethic until the final days of his life, they said. He was the founding partner of Kelly Hart & Hallman, Fort Worth’s largest law firm.

“My father didn’t really work all the time,” his son said Wednesday. “He actually took off every Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

“Everything you’ve heard about is work ethic is true. Ask any Kelly Hart lawyers sitting around you. He never settled for anything less than complete and total devotion to task …

“For the men and women of Kelly Hart, who he worked with for 35 years, he loved you all, from the mailroom to the managing partners, even when he was chewing you out, running you ragged.”

Tucker said Mr. Kelly was unique among people he has known.

“Although Dee never walked on water, or claimed to, or tried to as far as I know, he is unforgettable,” Tucker said. “Now and then people say to me, ‘You remind me of an acquaintance of mine.’ Surely Dee never heard that. If he did, he would have counted it as an insult. In style and substance, the man reminded me of no one. Full-bodied uniqueness marked him, and enlivened us.

“No doubt about it, Dee Kelly worked a boardroom as well as a backroom and used his connections to favor Fort Worth, the Metroplex and the state of Texas,” Tucker said. “He welcomed behind the scenes opportunities to advise and support those who captured headlines.”

Mr. Kelly was a native of the small town of Bonham in northeast Texas, also the home of his friend and mentor, legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn. It was Rayburn who coaxed the young 1950 graduate of TCU to Washington, D.C. Mr. Kelly worked in Rayburn’s office during the day and attended law school at George Washington University at night.

“When Dee had attained the degree, [Rayburn] would send him home,” Bass said. “The newspapers have reported lately that Rayburn said, ‘Go home, Texas needs you.’ But Dee told me that what Rayburn said was, ‘Get the hell out of this town. Go home where you can make an honest living.’ ”

But Mr. Kelly remained a fixture in politics, on the side of the Democrats in the early years.

“With apologies to Gov. Perry and all of my Republican friends here today, most who knew my father knew he was really a Democrat at heart,” Dee Kelly Jr. said. “My father’s early career with Speaker Rayburn, Gov. [John] Connally, President Johnson, Speaker [Jim] Wright and Lt. Gov. [Ben] Barnes forged his political views.”

But his political sympathies changed during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, the son said.

“It was the late ’70s and the height of the energy crisis when President Carter made an announcement that all Americans would limit home energy consumption,” Dee Kelly Jr. remembered. “My father was a patriot, but he wasn’t willing to do that.”

The son remembered watching his father, sweating in his den, as he “twisted down the thermostat to 68 degrees and said, ‘Take that Jimmy Carter.’ He became a Republican after that.”

TCU was another of Mr. Kelly’s great passions, and his memorial service featured the TCU Faculty String Quartet and the TCU Concert Chorale, which performed the school’s alma mater to close the service. Afterward, a reception was held at the TCU Alumni Center that bears Mr. Kelly’s name.

“Sam Rayburn was right. Whether in Washington or in Texas, all of us have needed Dee,” Bass said. “And you really did the deal.”

Tucker said it was hard to imagine Fort Worth without Mr. Kelly.

“The notion of Dee J. Kelly being gone is unacceptable, especially in Fort Worth,” Tucker said. “A mighty oak has fallen, yes, and scattered a thousand seeds, indeed …

“How do we say farewell to Mr. Kelly? Simply put, ‘Thanks, Dee. Thanks be to God.’ ”

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Business, political associates praise influential attorney Dee Kelly Sr.."