CEO of mission carries on legacy

Looking at her, no one would guess that Linda Kelley, president and CEO of Bloomington's Backstreet Missions, once faced the problems she now helps others escape -- problems from drug and alcohol addictions to homelessness.\nLinda, 59, smiles easily and often, speaks sincerely and has earned admiration for how well she runs the not-for-profit Christian homeless ministry her husband, Gene Kelley, started 10 years ago. When he died in 2002 of esophageal cancer, Linda found the strength to carry on the young ministry.\n"She's just on top of everything. She has the heart and the business sense to run the mission," said Linda's long-time friend, Jeff Grossnickle, who also serves on Backstreet's board of directors.\nRewind 30 years, though, when Linda and Gene were struggling with drug and alcohol addictions, raising two kids and barely scraping by.\nChildhood sweethearts from Mitchell, Ind., Linda and Gene met at age seven and married at 18. They met through church, but soon after marriage left their Christian backgrounds. The young couple moved to Bloomington, and within 10 years, a storm of grief hit: Gene's father and grandfather died within two months of each other. Gene's half-brother was murdered soon after. \nGene turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with the tragedy. Linda followed suit, unable to handle Gene's drug abuse.\n"It was very scary, and instead of going back to my faith, I joined him, and I started doing drugs and alcohol, too," Linda said.\nDuring the next 10 years, their addictions cost them almost everything. At one point, they took up in a camper with their two children, taking showers in town because they had no water. Every day became a struggle just to survive. The stress led Gene to openly consider suicide.\nIn the midst of it all, one unforgettable encounter impacted Gene's life -- and Linda's -- with a force that eventually rippled through Bloomington.\nWithout a job in 1979, Gene took up truck driving. Stopped in San Diego, he noticed a homeless man walking through a restaurant's outdoor dining area. Diners turned away, and the manager started running the man off, but Gene felt moved. He handed the man his sandwich.\nLater, a dog trotted the same path as the homeless man, greeted by attention and scraps of food from diners. Gene couldn't believe what he saw. \n"He thought how strange this was that people would just shove aside a human being and pay attention to a dog," said close friend Jim Richardson, pastor of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Bloomington. "And that was the thing that turned the light bulb on in his heart," \nThat experience sparked a desire to help the homeless. It stuck with him, even after he quit truck driving, then bartending and started working at a local factory.\nIn 1983, Linda and Gene turned back to Christianity -- the faith that, as Linda said, helped them change their own lives and, later, would help others do the same. It fueled Gene's vision for a homeless ministry in Bloomington.\nDecision time hit when the factory where Gene worked for more than 10 years downsized and cut his position. Linda remembers her husband thinking this might be his only chance to make his vision into reality, and she stood beside him as he passed up a better-paying position to get a homeless ministry off the ground. \n"I just supported him," Linda said. "I knew it was the passion of his life."\nStarting small, the Kelleys took people into their own home until 1995, when they opened the Crites House, a donated house in Spencer, Ind.\nLinda and Gene worked to expand the mission through church and community support, and in 1999, Backstreet moved into a larger facility in Bloomington.\nToday, Backstreet Missions includes a two-building men's shelter, thrift store and food pantry, and Linda finds herself at the top, working 50 to 60 hours a week to make Gene's dream happen.\nSometimes she still sees herself in the people who come for help.\n"I see people everyday at the food pantry needing food, and I say, 'Been there, done that,'" she said. "It's so rewarding to be able to take that stress off of them with the resources God has given"