Cynthia "CK" Kelley, lifelong community organizer, feminist, and friend to many in her adopted hometown of Oxford, Ohio, died on September 4, 2026 at age 95.

At her bedside were her beloved partner of 49 years, Muriel Blaisdell, her son, Peter Kelley, and dear neighbors. After a year-and-a-half of excellent care at the Knolls of Oxford, she had entered hospice care six weeks before through Hospice of Cincinnati.

Until the week before her death she was still reading a book every few days, writing in her journal, folding origami, and enjoying nature, music, art, and poetry, including her own artistic projects and poems.

Born Cynthia Sharon Gebauer to Margaret Cynthia Scudamore and Emanuel Lawrence Gebauer, she grew up in South Euclid, Ohio. Cynthia learned her love for reaching out to children and people of all ages from her mother, who taught remedial reading and organized the local bookmobile. From her father, a longtime English and drama teacher in inner-city Cleveland, she took her love for theater and poetry, especially Shakespeare.

Cynthia was committed to diversity and service in both public and private life. She and Pat Wright were the first interracial roommates at Northwestern University. In 1950 she was among 15 protestors arrested at an early civil rights sit-in supporting African-Americans' ability to eat in restaurants in Washington, D.C.

She met her future husband at an organizing meeting for the International Development Placement Association. For their honeymoon they took a freighter to Europe and hitchhiked across the Middle East to Sevagram, India, where they lived for six months and learned about Ghandi's philosophy.

As a family, including young sons Peter and Stephen, the Kelleys served two years with the Peace Corps in Cameroon, West Africa, where Cynthia taught adults to read and coauthored a reading primer.

She used her Masters in Anthropology as an eighth-grade teacher and as Director of Admissions for the Encampment for Citizenship, a summer training camp which put teens together across different races and economic classes to learn community organizing and engage in service projects.

After moving from the New York City area to northern New York, Cynthia taught courses in women's studies and group dynamics for North Country Community College and hiked and camped in the Adirondack Mountains. She became the Affirmative Action Officer at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

Following her divorce, she met Muriel, a professor of interdisciplinary studies and the history of science. They belonged to a community of women who enjoy hiking together. They moved to Oxford in 1981 when Muriel took a job with Miami University of Ohio.

The death of Cynthia's son Stephen from suicide led her to participate in and then organize bereavement support groups through The Compassionate Friends. She spent 12 years on staff at Hospice Care of Middletown, where she coordinated volunteer training and provided social work and bereavement support.

In retirement she led the Caregivers Support Group for Oxford Seniors, volunteered for Meals on Wheels, and attended the West Elkton Friends Meeting and the Hopedale Unitarian Universalist Community of Oxford. She joined Muriel for a year at Miami's study-abroad center in Luxembourg, where Muriel taught and both got to explore Europe.

In 2011, she was named "Woman of the Years" by the Kiwanis Club of Oxford and The Oxford Press.

She loved to attend and teach classes through the Institute for Learning in Retirement. In an ILR workshop she wrote a poem that ends: "See, moon, how I praise your light; With gratitude, with blessings."

In another workshop, on Star Island, New Hampshire, she made an artwork around the words: "As I listen to Mother Earth, I become a channel for loving energy."

In addition to Muriel Blaisdell and Peter Kelley, she is survived by grandchild Miles Kelley, daughter-in-law Valerie Briggs, nieces Jane Kelley and Betsy Newberry, nephews Bob Kelley, Roger Handler, and Richard and Larry Laux, and bonus grandchildren Ella Cope, and Akio and Chisa Weise. She is predeceased by her ex-husband Douglas Kelley, their other son Stephen Kelley, sisters Arden Handler and Carolyne Laux, and niece Lisa Handler

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in her name to the national Student Conservation Association, the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Miami University, and the Oxford Community Arts Center.

A celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, November 14, at the Knolls of Oxford auditorium at 6727 Contreras Road in Oxford. Visitation with the family will begin at 2 pm, followed by a memorial service at 3 pm, and a reception. Online condolences can be made at www.paulyoungfuneralhome.com . Paul R. Young Funeral Home (Oxford) assisting the family.