DEATH COMES TO "MR. GOOD EVENING"
Beloved M.A. Earle Kelly of the Airways Passes Away in Kamloops at Age 67

A memorial broadcast will be given for M.A. Earle Kelly (Mr. Good Evening) at 8 o'clock tonight over CKWX, the station from which he broadcast for many years. Arrangements for the funeral will be announced later.
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Mr. Good Evening died last night.
Michael A. Earle Kelly, Vancouver Daily Province News Announcer for nearly 20 years, passed away at the Tranquille Sanatorium in Kamloops last night.
Not for over a year had his voice been heard over the air from station CKWX to the oldtimers, to the woodsmen, and to the lighthouse-keepers, but hardly a day since his tragic collapse last February but has brought its telephone calls and letters to The Province asking about his health and wishing him recovery.
For Mr. Good Evening was an institution. In logging camps, on farms, in fishing centres aboard tugs and in the homes of British Columbia pioneers, his listeners gathered faithfully when he was due.
Few of them knew his name, hardly any saw him, for he preferred personal anonymity, but in essence everybody knew him.
He had a style of newscasting that was all his own and it became famous throught the west and in the United States.
He was a veteran newspaperman who summarized the news of the day capably. But many listened as much to hear how he would wish a "restful evening" as they did to find out the important news of the day.
His never-failing "sign off" was a wish for a restful evening to some person or group of persons he thought would be forgotten in the hubbub of the daily world.
He spoke for miners, for lighthouse keepers and others by the score.
Earle Kelly was "Mr. Good Evening."
Thousands loved him.
His message service was an institution, too.
He'd broadcast rush information to place where telephone and telegraph could not reach; was responsible for hundreds being able to get to town from isolated place in time to see loved ones before they passed away.
His was an emergency service.
Then came his last broadcast - on February 25, 1945.
And "Mr. Good Evening" left the air.
For the next few days The Province telephones were kept busy seeking news of him. But owing to his own emphatic insistence, details of his illness could not be given and the news of his passing is for many the first news they had that he had had to go to Tranquille.
Michael Aloysius Earle Kelly came to The Province from Australia. Born in New Zealand 67 years ago, he and his parents and brothers moved to Sydney when he was a year old and he went to school there.
His father was a frequent contributor to newspapers and the son inherited the "instinct" for news.
In the last war he fought with the Australians in the Middle East and on his discharge went to New Zealand, where he joined the staff of the "Dominion." Even then his heart had turned to this part of the world and he interspersed frequent articles he wrote for this paper with the suggestion that he might come here.
ON TELEGRAPH DESK
Then, characteristically, he turned up with without notice. This was in 1925. For four years he was a member of the papers telegraph desk before taking over the broadcast service in 1929.
At the outset his broadcasts were received with consternation by many of his audience. In those days of rapid-fire if somewhat confused utterance, his deliberate informal speech with its unmistakeable account was something to which they had to become accostomed.
When they did, no other broadcaster had his popularity. Friends who mimicked his voice at service luncheons did it in tribute and he was invariably among the most pleased to hear them.
Once a year he partially emerged from anonymity to take part in the Province Santa Claus broadcasts.
His "offerings," whether a song (he couldn't sing) or a straight appeal brought hundreds of dollars for his beloved children in the broadcast auctions.
His daily morning and evening newscasts followed hours of meticulous preparation and his mail bag was the largest in the office.
"NEIGHBORLY NEWS"
For some time, he had a national broadcast over CBC called "The Wash Tub," which was extremely popular among housewives. He also gave "Neighborly News" over the same station for the B.C. Weekly Newspaper Association and CBC each Sunday morning for years. He carried on the latter up to the time of his illness and worried because he could not resume it.
So it was that the Australian war veteran who came to the paper with the bare announcement "May I introduce myself as an itinerant journalist" became beloved and famous.
Beyond his radio work he had few interests. He used to describe his "unseen audience" as his family and, as far as most people knew, he had no other. He was a familiar figure, rain or shine, in Stanley Park tennis courts, and he had a coterie of close friends in the Quadra Club, where he lived for many years.

- Vancouver Province, April 15, 1946