Sue Kelly Adams

SUE KELLY ADAMSJanuary 12, 1931 — June 20, 2025

Sue Kelly Adams was born to Ewing C. and Nina N. Kelly, the second of their three children. A California native, she grew up in Sacramento, where her family founded KCRA radio and television stations. Sue passed away peacefully on Midsummer’s Day at her home at Casa Dorinda. She was 94.

Sue lived a long, full life that included a career as a landscape architect, world travel, creative and athletic hobbies and interests and family. She met her first husband, John Francis Adams, at Stanford, where they both studied architecture.

Always adventurous, Sue and John traveled the world in 1956, visiting Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Angkor, Delhi, Bagdad, and Istanbul, followed by a European road trip in a red Karmann-Ghia that came home with them.

The newlyweds then settled in John’s hometown of Pasadena to start a family. Using their combined creative skills, they converted the Wrigley Mansion carriage house into their family home.

Eventually Sue relocated to Sacramento, studying law at McGeorge for several years, and spending time at Lake Tahoe until moving to Santa Barbara in the mid-1980s. An early adapter of tech, Sue owned the first video phone as well as the first Apple PC, the McIntosh.

In later years, Sue painted, played the piano and the harp, sailed, played tennis, golf and bridge and enjoyed spending time with her family, especially her two grandchildren.

Predeceased by her parents, three husbands, and two brothers, Robert Kelly and Jon Kelly, she is survived by her daughter, Carolyn Adams, son Walter Adams and two grandchildren, Anne Adams Cole and John Francis Adams.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to any of the Casa Dorinda Employee Support Funds.