Danielle (Kelley) Oren

Danielle “Dana” Kelley Oren

28 April 1949 – 5 March 2023

It is with great sadness the Oren family announces the death of Danielle Kelley Oren following a six-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Danielle passed away at her home in the company of family and loved ones.

Born to Irma and Edward Kelley of Woodbridge Virginia, Dana attended Gar- Field High School in Woodbridge and was a graduate of Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia, class of 1971.  There she studied Foreign Service and Foreign Languages.  From this followed employment by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1972, Dana married Captain Stephen Joel Oren, USMC and embarked with him on a journey lasting over fifty years.  Marriage to a career military officer ended the CIA path.  However, the IRS had offices everywhere.

In 1981 her career path changed again as she took on the role of loving mother and homemaker.   In this, Dana found her métier and went on to create beautiful homes and nurturing environments for her husband and two children wherever the United States Marine Corps might post them.

Dana excelled in her interests – the piano, gardening, antiquities, anthropology, history, and crafts. She loved cultures in all their diversity and immersed herself in art and home decor.  Where Dana traveled, she honored the residents by using their language.  Ultimately, she could converse and find her way around any shop, city, museum or metro system in Spanish, French, German and Japanese.  She enjoyed literature and cinema, especially murder mysteries and Cold War spy thrillers.

In the last year of her life, Dana became a member of the John B. Denton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.   In so doing, she completed the genealogy begun by her mother, so many years before, and fulfilled her dream.  The legacy will serve generations.

Throughout the “long good-bye” of her illness, Dana and Steve were lifted up by the gracious and thoughtful support of old friends and new neighbors.  The expertise and dedication of Dale Roth and staff of North Texas Sports Medicine, Aid Cody Wilkerson, and Solaris Hospice Care allowed them to cope with the enormous demands of Parkinson’s Disease.

A Celebration of Life was held for Dana on March 11th at her home in Decatur.  The Oren Family is most appreciative of the wonderful company present and the kind expressions of sympathy and regard.