DeForest Kelley

Jackson DeForest Kelley was an American actor known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek. Kelley was born in Toccoa, Georgia, the son of Clora and Ernest David Kelley, who was a Baptist minister. DeForest was named after the pioneering electronics engineer Lee De Forest, and later named his Star Trek character's father "David" after his own. Kelley was delivered in their home by his uncle, a prominent local physician. Kelley had an older brother, Ernest Casey Kelley. Kelley grew up in the Atlanta... area and was a 1938 graduate of Decatur Boys High in Decatur, Georgia. As a child, he sang in the church choir, where he discovered that he enjoyed singing and was good at it. Eventually, this led to solos and an appearance on the radio station WSB AM in Atlanta, Georgia. As a result of his radio work, he won an engagement with Lew Forbes and his orchestra at the Paramount Theater. Kelley served in World War II as an enlisted man in the United States Army Air Forces between March 10, 1943, and January 28, 1946.
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